Do you know how many species of flowering plants there are? There are a quarter of a million -- at least those are the ones we know about -- a quarter of a million species of flowering plants. And flowers are a real bugger. They're really difficult for plants to produce. They take an enormous amount of energy and a lot of resources. Why would they go to that bother? And the answer of course, like so many things in the world, is sex. I know what's on your mind when you're looking at these pictures. And the reason that sexual reproduction is so important -- there are lots of other things that plants can do to reproduce. You can take cuttings; they can sort of have sex with themselves; they can pollinate themselves. But they really need to spread their genes to mix with other genes so that they can adapt to environmental niches. Evolution works that way.
Da li znate koliko biljaka cvetnica postoji? Postoji četvrtina miliona, ili barem mi znamo za toliko vrsta, četvrtina miliona različitih vrsta biljaka cvetnica. A cveće je pravi mali projekat za biljku. Biljci je veoma je naporno da proizvede cvet. Cvet zahteva ogromnu količinu energije i jako puno resursa. Zašto bi se biljke onda bavile time? Odgovor je naravno, kao i za toliko drugih stvari na svetu, seks. Znam o čemu razmišljate kada gledate ove slike. Razlog sbog koga je seksualna reprodukcija toliko važna jeste što postoji mnogo drugih stvari koje bi biljke mogle da urade ne bi li se umnožile. Ako razmotrimo strugotine kao primer; one mogu same sa sobom imati seks na neki način; mogu same sebe oprašivati. Ali je neophodno u stvari da oni rasprostrane svoje gene kako bi ih ukrstili sa drugim genima ne bi li se uspešno prilagodile na ekološke niše. Evolucija funkcioniše na taj način.
Now the way that plants transmit that information is through pollen. Some of you may have seen some of these pictures before. As I say, every home should have a scanning electron microscope to be able to see these. And there is as many different kinds of pollen as there are flowering plants. And that's actually rather useful for forensics and so on. Most pollen that causes hay fever for us is from plants that use the wind to disseminate the pollen, and that's a very inefficient process, which is why it gets up our noses so much. Because you have to chuck out masses and masses of it, hoping that your sex cells, your male sex cells, which are held within the pollen, will somehow reach another flower just by chance. So all the grasses, which means all of the cereal crops, and most of the trees have wind-borne pollen. But most species actually use insects to do their bidding, and that's more intelligent in a way, because the pollen, they don't need so much of it. The insects and other species can take the pollen, transfer it directly to where it's required.
Put kojim biljke prenose tu informaciju je polen. Neki od vas su možda već videli neke od ovih slika. Kao što bih ja rekao, svaka kuća bi trebalo da ima skenirajući elektronski mikroskop kako bi bila u mogućnosti da vidi ovo. I postoji onoliko različitih vrsta polena koliko ima biljaka cvetnica. A to je u principu veoma korisno forezničarima i tako dalje. Većinu tipova polena koja izaziva polensku groznicu kod ljudi proizvode biljke koje koriste vetar kako bi rasprostranile svoj polen. I to je veoma neefikasan proces, usled koga polen završi u našim nosevima. Jer treba prozivesti ogromne količine polena, u nadi da će polne ćelije, muške polne ćelije, koje se nalaze unutar polena, nekako pronaći drugi, odgovarajući cvet pukom igrom slučaja. Većina trava, što uključuje i sve žitarice, i većina drveća imaju polen koji se prenosi vetrom. Ali većina cvetnica u principu koristi insekte u te svrhe. I to je inteligentniji način jer im nije potrebna tolika količina polena. Insekti i druge vrste mogu pokupiti polen i preneti ga direktno tamo gde je potreban.
So we're aware, obviously, of the relationship between insects and plants. There's a symbiotic relationship there, whether it's flies or birds or bees, they're getting something in return, and that something in return is generally nectar. Sometimes that symbiosis has led to wonderful adaptations -- the hummingbird hawk-moth is beautiful in its adaptation. The plant gets something, and the hawk-moth spreads the pollen somewhere else. Plants have evolved to create little landing strips here and there for bees that might have lost their way. There are markings on many plants that look like other insects. These are the anthers of a lily, cleverly done so that when the unsuspecting insect lands on it, the anther flips up and whops it on the back with a great load of pollen that it then goes to another plant with. And there's an orchid that might look to you as if it's got jaws, and in a way, it has; it forces the insect to crawl out, getting covered in pollen that it takes somewhere else.
Tako da smo očigledno svesni odnosa između insekata i biljaka. To je simbiotska zajednica, bez obzira da li polen raznose ptice ili pčele, oni dobijaju nešto zauzvrat, a to je najčešće nektar. U nekim slučajevima je ta simbioza dovela do fantastičnih adaptacija primer prilagođenosti koji vidimo kod kolibrija: jastreb-moljca je prelep. Biljka dobija nešto onzirom da kolibri prenosi polen na drugo mesto. Biljke su evoluirale da naprave male piste ovde i onde za pčele koje su se možda izgubile na svom putu. Postoje simboli na mnogim biljkama koji izgledaju kao drugi insekti. Ovo su prašnici ljiljana prepametno dizajnirani tako da kada insekt koji ništa ne sumlja sleti, prašnik se izdigne i lupi ga po leđima sa ogromnom količinom polena koji ovaj ponese do sledeće biljke sa sobom. I tu je primer orhideja i vama se može učiniti da one imaju vilice. I na neki način, imaju ih, obzirom da one prinude insekta da ispuzi odatle, i na taj način insekt bude prekriven polenom koji prenese na drugo mesto.
Orchids: there are 20,000, at least, species of orchids -- amazingly, amazingly diverse. And they get up to all sorts of tricks. They have to try and attract pollinators to do their bidding. This orchid, known as Darwin's orchid, because it's one that he studied and made a wonderful prediction when he saw it -- you can see that there's a very long nectar tube that descends down from the orchid. And basically what the insect has to do -- we're in the middle of the flower -- it has to stick its little proboscis right into the middle of that and all the way down that nectar tube to get to the nectar. And Darwin said, looking at this flower, "I guess something has coevolved with this." And sure enough, there's the insect. And I mean, normally it kind of rolls it away, but in its erect form, that's what it looks like.
Orhideje, ima ih u najmanju ruku 20.000, različitih vrsta orhideja-- neverovatna, nevrovatna različitost. I one koriste sve moguće vrste trikova. Moraju da pokušaju i privuku oprašivače koji prenose njihov polen. Ova orhideja, poznata kao Darvinova orhideja, jer je to vrsta koju je on izučavao i došao do prelepe pretpostavke kada ju je video. Možete videti da ima veoma dugu cev za nektar koja se spušta od orhideje. I u principu ono što insekt treba da uradi -- mi smo sada u sredini cveta -- mora da zarije svoje malo rilo tačno u sredinu ovoga i skroz do dna cevi za nektar kako bi došao do nektara. I, gledajući ovaj cvet, Darvin je rekao, "Pretpostvljam da je nešto ko-evoluiralo sa ovom adaptacijom." I defintivno, postoji insekt. I svakako, on inače nekako zavije svoje rilo, ali u svojoj ispravljenoj formi, izgleda baš ovako.
Now you can imagine that if nectar is such a valuable thing and expensive for the plant to produce and it attracts lots of pollinators, then, just as in human sex, people might start to deceive. They might say, "I've got a bit of nectar. Do you want to come and get it?" Now this is a plant. This is a plant here that insects in South Africa just love, and they've evolved with a long proboscis to get the nectar at the bottom. And this is the mimic. So this is a plant that is mimicking the first plant. And here is the long-probosced fly that has not gotten any nectar from the mimic, because the mimic doesn't give it any nectar. It thought it would get some. So not only has the fly not got the nectar from the mimic plant, it's also -- if you look very closely just at the head end, you can see that it's got a bit of pollen that it would be transmitting to another plant, if only some botanist hadn't come along and stuck it to a blue piece of card.
Vi sada možete zamisliti da ako je nektar toliko važna stvar i za biljku energetski preskupa da ga proizvede, a pri tome privlači puno oprašivača, onda, kao i kod seksa među ljudima, ljudi bi možda počeli da varaju. Mogli bi reći, "Imam malo nektara. Hoćeš da dođes da ga pokupis?" A ovo je biljka. Ovo je biljka ovde koju insekti u Južnoj Africi obožavaju. I evolucija je dovela kod njih do razvijanja dugog rila kako bi mogli da pokupe nektar sa dna cveta. A ovo je primer mimikrije. Ovo je biljka koja oponaša prvu biljku. A ovo je muva sa dugim rilom koja ne može da dođe do nektara iz biljke koja je razvila mimikriju. Prosto, usled toga što ta biljka ne proizvodi nikakav nektar. Ali je insekt misilio da ce doći do nektara. Tako da ne samo da muva nije dobila nektar, već i - ukoliko pažljivo pogledate - baš ovde na kraju glave insekta, možete uočiti malu količinu polena koju bi insekt preneo do sledeće biljke samo da neki botaničar nije došao i zakačio plavu karticu na muvu.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
Now deceit carries on through the plant kingdom. This flower with its black dots: they might look like black dots to us, but if I tell you, to a male insect of the right species, that looks like two females who are really, really hot to trot. (Laughter) And when the insect gets there and lands on it, dousing itself in pollen, of course, that it's going to take to another plant, if you look at the every-home-should-have-one scanning electron microscope picture, you can see that there are actually some patterning there, which is three-dimensional. So it probably even feels good for the insect, as well as looking good.
Dakle obmane su česta pojava u celom biljnom carstvu. Ovaj cvet sa crnim tačkama: ovo možda izgleda kao crna tačka nama, ali mogu vam reći, da insektu mužjaku tačno određene vrste, to izgleda kao dve ženke koje su zaista, zaista u sezoni parenja. (Smeh) I kada insekt sleti na biljku, opija se polenom, koji će, naravno, preneti do druge biljke, ukoliko pogledate ovu sliku koja potiče iz elektronskog mikroskopa koji svako domaćinstvo treba imati, moći ćete da videte određene, trodimenzionalne šeme. Tako da insekt verovatno uživa u svemu tome, pored toga što izgleda dobro.
And these electron microscope pictures -- here's one of an orchid mimicking an insect -- you can see that different parts of the structure have different colors and different textures to our eye, have very, very different textures to what an insect might perceive. And this one is evolved to mimic a glossy metallic surface you see on some beetles. And under the scanning electron microscope, you can see the surface there -- really quite different from the other surfaces we looked at. Sometimes the whole plant mimics an insect, even to us. I mean, I think that looks like some sort of flying animal or beast. It's a wonderful, amazing thing.
Ove su slike slikane elekronskim mikroskopom ovo je orhideja koja imitira insekta; možete uočiti da različiti delovi ove strukture imaju različte boje i teksturu koje možemo uočiti našim okom, ali je to veoma, veoma različita tekstura u odnosu na ono što insekt uočava. A ova biljka je evoluirala da imitira sjajno-metalnu površinu koju možete videti na nekim bubama. A ispod skenirajućeg elektronskog mikroskopa, možete zapaziti površinu tamo koja je poprilično različita u odnosu na površinu koju smo upravo posmatrali. Ponekada cela biljka prosto izgleda kao insket, čak to tako izgleda i našem oku. Hoću da kažem, da ja mislim da izgleda kao životinja koja leti ili zverka. To je prelepa, očaravajuća stvar.
This one's clever. It's called obsidian. I think of it as insidium sometimes. To the right species of bee, this looks like another very aggressive bee, and it goes and bonks it on the head lots and lots of times to try and drive it away, and, of course, covers itself with pollen. The other thing it does is that this plant mimics another orchid that has a wonderful store of food for insects. And this one doesn't have anything for them. So it's deceiving on two levels -- fabulous.
Ova ovde je jako pametna. Poznata je pod imenom opsidijan. A ja je ponekada zovem insidijum. Pravoj vrsti vrsta pčele, ovo izgleda kao druga veoma agresivna vrsta pčele, i pčela je napada svojom glavom mnogo, mnogo puta kako bi pokušala da je otera, i, naravno, na taj način bude okupana polenom. Druga stvar koju radi je ta da ova biljka imitira drugu orhideju koja ima prelepo skladište hrane za insekte. A ova ovde nema uopšte hranu za njih. Tako da vrši prevaru na dva nivoa fantastično.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
Here we see ylang ylang, the component of many perfumes. I actually smelt someone with some on earlier. And the flowers don't really have to be that gaudy. They're sending out a fantastic array of scent to any insect that'll have it. This one doesn't smell so good. This is a flower that really, really smells pretty nasty and is designed, again, evolved, to look like carrion. So flies love this. They fly in and they pollinate. This, which is helicodiceros, is also known as dead horse arum. I don't know what a dead horse actually smells like, but this one probably smells pretty much like it. It's really horrible. And blowflies just can't help themselves. They fly into this thing, and they fly all the way down it. They lay their eggs in it, thinking it's a nice bit of carrion, and not realizing that there's no food for the eggs, that the eggs are going to die, but the plant, meanwhile, has benefited, because the bristles release and the flies disappear to pollinate the next flower -- fantastic.
Ovde vidimo "ylang ylang", komponentu mnogih parfema. Ja sam u stvari ranije i osetio taj miris na nekome. A cveće ne treba zaista da izgleda toliko kitnjasto. Ono odašilje fantastične vrste mirisa svakom insketu koji to želi. Ova ne miriše tako dobro. Ovo je cvet koji miriše veoma, veoma neprijatno a dizajniran je tako, odnosno, evoluirao je da liči na strvinu. Tako da je muve obožavaju. One sleću na cvet i pokupe polen. Ova biljka, zvana helikodiceros, a poznata je i kao cvet mrtvog konja. Ja ne znam kako mrtav konj u stvarnosti miriše, ali ova biljka veoravatno miriše poprilično slično. Stvarno je užasno. A, muve zunzare prosto ne mogu da odole. One lete ka ovom cvetu, i prelete celim putem niz biljku. Polože svoja jaja na nju, misleći da je to dobar primerak strvine, ne shvatajući da tu nema hrane za njihova jaja, da će jaja uginuti, ali biljka, u međuvremenu, uživa u svojim beneficijama, jer se njihove čekinje otvore i muve odlete kako bi oprašile sledeći cvet- fantastično.
Here's arum, arum maculatum, "lords and ladies," or "cuckoo-pint" in this country. I photographed this thing last week in Dorset. This thing heats up by about 15 degrees above ambient temperature -- amazing. And if you look down into it, there's this sort of dam past the spadix, flies get attracted by the heat -- which is boiling off volatile chemicals, little midges -- and they get trapped underneath in this container. They drink this fabulous nectar and then they're all a bit sticky. At night they get covered in pollen, which showers down over them, and then the bristles that we saw above, they sort of wilt and allow all these midges out, covered in pollen -- fabulous thing.
Ovo je "arum maculatum", kod nas poznat kao kozlac. Napravio sam ovu fotografiju prošle nedelje u Dorsetu. Ova biljčica se zagreje 15 stepeni iznad temperature okoline - čarobno. I ukoliko analizirate biljku, uočićete neku vrstu brane posle cvasti, vrućina privuče muve-- u kojoj ključaju isparljive hemikalije, i male muve-- budu uhvaćene u zamku u ovom kontejneru. Piju ovaj dražesni nektar i postanu potpuno lepljive. U toku noći muve budu potpuno prekrivene polenom, budu prosto istuširane polenom, i tada čekinjice koje smo malo čas videli uvenu i omoguće izlaz muvicama, koje su prekrivene polenom- fantastično.
Now if you think that's fabulous, this is one of my great favorites. This is the philodendron selloum. For anyone here from Brazil, you'll know about this plant. This is the most amazing thing. That sort of phallic bit there is about a foot long. And it does something that no other plant that I know of does, and that is that when it flowers -- that's the spadix in the middle there -- for a period of about two days, it metabolizes in a way which is rather similar to mammals. So instead of having starch, which is the food of plants, it takes something rather similar to brown fat and burns it at such a rate that it's burning fat, metabolizing, about the rate of a small cat. And that's twice the energy output, weight for weight, than a hummingbird -- absolutely astonishing. This thing does something else which is unusual. Not only will it raise itself to 115 Fahrenheit, 43 or 44 degrees Centigrade, for two days, but it keeps constant temperature. There's a thermoregulation mechanism in there that keeps constant temperature. "Now why does it do this," I hear you ask. Now wouldn't you know it, there's some beetles that just love to make love at that temperature. And they get inside, and they get it all on. (Laughter) And the plant showers them with pollen, and off they go and pollinate. And what a wonderful thing it is.
Ukoliko mislite da je ovo očaravajuće, sada cu vam pokazati moje omiljene. Ovo je filodendron. Osobe u publici iz Brazila, znaju sve o ovoj biljci. Ovo je najčudesnija stvar. Ovaj deo koji podseća na falus je dug oko 30 cm. I čini nešto što ne radi ni jedna druga biljka za koju ja znam, kada cveta- ovo je cvast u sredini ovde-- tokom od prilike dva dana, metabolizam te biljke podseća na neki način na metabolizam sisara na neki način. Tako da umesto da koristi skrob, a to je hrana za biljke, ona koristi materijal sličan tamnom masnom tkivu i sagoreva je takvom stopom da sagoreva masti, stopom metabolizma, koja je karakteristična za malu mačku. A ukoliko uporedimo odnos proizvedene energije prema težini, to je dva puta više u odnosu na kolibrija - potpuno zadivljujuće. Ova stvarčica čini drugu neuobičajenu stvar. Ne samo da se zagreje do temeperature od 115 Farenhajta, 43 ili 44 Celzijusove skale, u trajanju od dva dana, nego i održava konstantnu temperaturu. Postoji termoregulacioni sistem koji održava konstantnu temperaturu. Ali zašto sve to? Čujem vas kako pitate. Zar nije čudno što ne znate da postoje neke bube koje obožavaju da se pare baš na toj temperaturi. I one uđu u biljku, i bace se na posao. (Smeh) A biljka ih okupa polenom, i bube odlaze spremne za oprašivanje drugih. A to je prelepa stvar.
Now most pollinators that we think about are insects, but actually in the tropics, many birds and butterflies pollinate. And many of the tropical flowers are red, and that's because butterflies and birds see similarly to us, we think, and can see the color red very well. But if you look at the spectrum, birds and us, we see red, green and blue and see that spectrum. Insects see green, blue and ultraviolet, and they see various shades of ultraviolet. So there's something that goes on off the end there. "And wouldn't it be great if we could somehow see what that is," I hear you ask. Well yes we can. So what is an insect seeing? Last week I took these pictures of rock rose, helianthemum, in Dorset. These are little yellow flowers like we all see, little yellow flowers all over the place. And this is what it looks like with visible light. This is what it looks like if you take out the red. Most bees don't perceive red. And then I put some ultraviolet filters on my camera and took a very, very long exposure with the particular frequencies of ultraviolet light and this is what I got. And that's a real fantastic bull's eye.
Većina oprašivača cvetnica o kojima mi razmišljamo su insekti, ali u stvari u tropskim predelima oprašivači su ptice i leptiri. Veliki broj tropskog cveća je crvene boje, a to je zato što leptiri i ptice mi bismo pomislili, vide slično nama i mogu uočiti crvenu boju veoma dobro. Ali ukoliko pogledate na spektar boja, ptice i mi, mi vidimo crveno, zeleno i plavo, i vidimo taj spektar boja. Insekti vide zeleno, plavo i ultraljubičaste zrake, i uočavaju različite nijanse ultraljubičastog zračenja. Tako da se nešto dešava na kraju ove skale ovde. "Ne bi li bilo sjajno kada bismo mi nekako mogli da vidimo šta je to," čujem vas kako pitate. Pa, možemo. I šta onda insekt vidi? Prošle nedelje sam uslikao ružu kamenjara, "helianthemum", u Dorsetu. Ovo je malo žuto cveće kao što mi svi vidimo, malo žuto cveće svuda unaokolo. I ovako ono izgleda u vidljivom delu spektra. A ovako izgleda ako izbacite crvenu boju iz spektra. Većina pčela ne vidi crvenu boju. Tako da sam ja postavio filtere za ultraljubičaste zrake na svom aparatu i postavio veoma, veoma dugo izlaganje i koristio tačno određenu frekvenciju ultraljubičaste svetlosti i ovo je rezultat. A to je zaista impresivni centar.
Now we don't know exactly what a bee sees, any more than you know what I'm seeing when I call this red. We can't know what's going on in -- let alone an insect's -- another human being's mind. But the contrast will look something like that, so standing out a lot from the background. Here's another little flower -- different range of ultraviolet frequencies, different filters to match the pollinators. And that's the sort of thing that it would be seeing. Just in case you think that all yellow flowers have this property -- no flower was damaged in the process of this shot; it was just attached to the tripod, not killed -- then under ultraviolet light, look at that. And that could be the basis of a sunscreen because sunscreens work by absorbing ultraviolet light. So maybe the chemical in that would be useful.
E sada, mi ne znamo tačno šta pčela vidi, ništa više od onoga što vi znate šta ja vidim kada kažem da je ovo crveno. Mi ne znamo šta se dešava u mozgu drugog čoveka, a kamoli u mozgu insekata. Ali kontrast bi izgledao nekako kao ovo. Toliko odskače od sredine. Ovo je primer još jednog malog cveta različit opseg ultraljubičastih frekvencija, različiti filteri kako bi odgovarali polinatorima. I ovo je tip slike koju bi insekt video. U slučaju da mislite da svo žuto cveće poseduje ovu karakteristiku - ni jedan cvet nije bio oštećen u proceduri slikanja samo sam ga postavio na tronožac, nisam ubio cvet-- i potom pod ultraljubičastom svetlošću, pogledajte to. I to bi mogla da bude osnova kreme za sunčanje, obzirom da SPF faktor funkcioniše tako što apsorbuje ultraljubičaste zrake. Tako da bi hemijska supstanca u tome mogla biti korisna.
Finally, there's one of evening primrose that Bjorn Rorslett from Norway sent me -- fantastic hidden pattern. And I love the idea of something hidden. I think there's something poetic here, that these pictures taken with ultraviolet filter, the main use of that filter is for astronomers to take pictures of Venus -- actually the clouds of Venus. That's the main use of that filter. Venus, of course, is the god of love and fertility, which is the flower story. And just as flowers spend a lot of effort trying to get pollinators to do their bidding, they've also somehow managed to persuade us to plant great fields full of them and give them to each other at times of birth and death, and particularly at marriage, which, when you think of it, is the moment that encapsulates the transfer of genetic material from one organism to another.
Na kraju, ovo je noćna jagorčevina koju mi je poslao iz Norveške Bjorn Rorslet-- fenomenalna skrivena šema. I meni se jako sviđa ideja o skrivenim stvarima. Mislim da postoji nešto poetično ovde. Pogledajte tu sliku napravljenu uz pomoć ultraljubičastih filtera, glavnu primenu tog filtera pronalaze astronomi kada slikaju Veneru-- u stvari oblake Venere. Za to je ovaj filter najkorisniji. Venera, je, naravno, boginja ljubavi i plodnosti, a to je priča cveta. I baš kao što cveće ulaže puno napora kako bi privuklo oprašivače da odrade njihov posao, isto tako su nas ubedili da sadimo polja i polja cveća i da ih poklanjamo jedni drugima kada se rađamo i umiremo, a naročito kada se venčavamo, što, kada razmislite o tome, je momenat koji obležava prenos genetičkog materijala od jednog do drugog organizma.
Thank you very much.
Hvala vam mnogo.
(Applause)
(Aplauz)