You're watching the life cycle of a Streptomyces coelicolor. It's a strain of bacteria that's found in the soil where it lives in a community with other organisms, decomposing organic matter. Coelicolor is a beautiful organism. A powerhouse for synthesizing organic chemical compounds. It produces an antibiotic called actinorhodin, which ranges in color from blue to pink and purple, depending on the acidity of its environment. That it produces these pigment molecules sparked my curiosity and led me to collaborate closely with coelicolor. It is an unlikely partnership, but it's one that completely transformed my practice as a materials designer. From it, I understood how nature was going to completely revolutionize how we design and build our environments, and that organisms like coelicolor were going to help us grow our material future.
你正在看的是天藍色 鏈黴菌的生命週期。 這種菌種會在土壤中 和其他有機體共同生存, 分解有機物質。 天藍色鏈黴菌是種美麗的有機體。 它是合成有機化合物的發電廠。 它會產生一種抗生素, 叫做放線紫紅素, 顏色從藍色到粉紅色和紫色都有, 依據環境的酸度而異。 它會產生色素分子, 這點引起我的好奇心, 導致我與天藍色鏈黴菌密切合作。 這是段不太可能的合作關係, 但這段關係完全改變了 我身為材料設計師的工作。 它讓我了解大自然如何能完全改革 我們設計與建造環境的方式, 而有機體,如天藍色鏈黴菌, 將會協助栽培出我們的物質未來。
So what's wrong with things as they are? Well, for the last century, we've organized ourselves around fossil fuels, arguably, the most valuable material system we have ever known. We are tethered to this resource, and we've crafted a dependency on it that defines our identities, cultures, our ways of making and our economies. But our fossil fuel-based activities are reshaping the earth with a kind of violence that is capable of dramatically changing the climate, of accelerating a loss of biodiversity and even sustaining human conflict. We're living in a world where the denial of this dependence has become deadly. And its reasons are multiple, but they include the privilege of not being affected and what I believe is a profound lack of imagination about how else we could live within the limits of this planet's boundaries.
所以現狀有什麼不好? 在過去一世紀, 我們的生活以化石燃料為中心, 可說是目前已知 最有價值的物質系統。 我們被這項資源束縛住, 產生對它的依賴性, 它定義了我們的身分、 文化、製造方式,以及經濟。 但我們以化石燃料 為基礎的活動正重塑地球, 程度強烈到能夠顯著改變氣候, 加速生物多樣性的喪失, 甚至會讓人類衝突持續。 我們生活在一個 拒絕這種依賴變得致命的世界。 這背後的理由有很多, 包括不被影響的特權, 我認為,還包括在 這個星球的限制之下, 對於其他的生活方式 極度缺乏想像力。
Fossil fuels will one day give way to renewable energy. That means we need to find new material systems that are not petroleum-based. I believe that those material systems will be biological, but what matters is how we design and build them. They mustn't perpetuate the destructive legacies of the oil age.
化石燃料有一天會讓位給再生能源。 那表示我們得要找到新的物質系統, 不以石油為基礎的。 我認為,新的物質系統會是生物的, 但重要的是我們 如何設計和建造它們。 它們不能讓石油年代的 破壞性遺產永久延續。
When you look at this image, what do you see? Well, I see a highly sophisticated biological system, that through the use of enzymes, can move and place atoms more quickly and precisely than anything we've ever engineered. And we know that it can do this at scale. Nature has evolved over 3.8 billion years to be able to do this, but now through the use of synthetic biology, an emerging scientific discipline that seeks to customize this functionality of living systems, we can now rapid prototype the assembly of DNA. That means that we can engineer the kind of biological precision that makes it possible to design a bacteria that can recycle metal, to grow fungi into furniture and even sequester renewable energy from algae.
當你們看這張圖時, 你們看到什麼? 我看到的是一個 高度精密的生物系統, 透過酵素的使用, 它能比我們所建造出來的 任何東西都更快速、 更精確地移動和放置原子。 且我們知道,它能 大規模地做到這一點。 大自然演化了 38 億年, 才能做到這一點, 但現在,透過合成生物學的使用, 它是一種新興的科學科目, 目的在將活系統的功能給客製化, 我們現在能快速測試 DNA 組合。 那表示,生物精確性可以高到 讓我們能夠設計出 能回收金屬的細菌, 能將真菌栽培成傢俱, 甚至從水藻中分離出再生能源。
To think about how we might access this inherent brilliance of nature -- to build things from living things -- let's consider the biological process of fermentation. I've come to think of fermentation, when harnessed by humans, as an advanced technological toolkit for our survival. When a solid or a liquid ferments, it's chemically broken down by bacterial fungi. The byproduct of this is what we value. So for example, we add yeast to grapes to make wine. Well in nature, these transformations are part of a complex network -- a continuous cycle that redistributes energy. Fermentation gives rise to multispecies interactions of bacteria and fungi, plants, insects, animals and humans: in other words, whole ecosystems. We've known about these powerful microbial interactions for thousands of years. You can see how through the fermentation of grains, vegetal matter and animal products, all peoples and cultures of the world have domesticated microorganisms to make the inedible edible. And there's even evidence that as early as 350 AD, people deliberately fermented foodstuffs that contained antibiotics. The skeletal remains of some Sudanese Nubian were found to contain significant deposits of tetracycline. That's an antibiotic that we use in modern medicine today. And nearly 1500 years later, Alexander Fleming discovered the antimicrobial properties of mold. And it was only through the industrialized fermentation of penicillin that millions could survive infectious diseases. Fermentation could once again play an important role in our human development. Could it represent a new mode of survival if we harness it to completely change our industries?
為了要想出我們能如何取用 大自然與生俱來的才華── 用生物來造東西── 讓我們先思考發酵的生物過程。 我漸漸認為,當發酵被人類利用時, 可被視為是協助我們 生存的先進科技工具。 固體或液體發酵時 會被真菌化學性地分解, 我們很珍視這過程的副產品。 比如,我們添加酵母, 讓葡萄變成葡萄酒。 在大自然中,這類的轉化 屬於一個複雜的網路── 一個能夠重新分配能量的持續循環。 發酵能引起多物種的互動, 包括細菌和真菌、 植物、昆蟲、動物、人類。 換言之,就是整個生態系統。 數千年來我們都知道這些強大的 微生物互動。 你可以看見,透過穀物、 植物質,以及動物產品, 世上各種人和文化都在使用微生物, 把不能吃的變成能吃的。 甚至早在公元 350 年 就已經有證據, 證明人們會刻意發酵 含有抗生素的食品。 一些蘇丹努比亞人的骨骸 被發現含有明顯的四環素沉澱。 那是我們在現代醫學中 會使用的一種抗生素。 近 1500 年後, 亞歷山大弗萊明發現了 黴菌的抗微生物特性。 透過盤尼西林的工業化發酵, 才讓數百萬得到 感染性疾病的人能夠存活。 在我們人類的發展當中, 發酵可以再次扮演重要的角色。 它是否能代表一種新的生存方式, 如果我們利用它來 完全改變我們的產業?
I've worked in my creative career to develop new material systems for the textile industry. And while it is work that I love, I cannot reconcile with the fact that the textile industry is one of the most polluting in the world. Most of the ecological harm caused by textile processing occurs at the finishing and the dyeing stage. Processing textiles requires huge amounts of water. And since the oil age completely transformed the textile industry, many of the materials and the chemicals used to process them are petroleum based. And so coupled with our insatiable appetite for fast fashion, a huge amount of textile waste is ending up in landfill every year because it remains notoriously difficult to recycle. So again, contrast this with biology. Evolved over 3.8 billion years, to rapid prototype, to recycle and to replenish better than any system we've ever engineered.
在我的創意職涯當中, 我為紡織業發展了 新的物質系統。 雖然這是我喜愛的工作, 我無法接受一個事實: 紡織業是世界上 污染最嚴重的產業之一。 大部分因紡織處理所造成的生態傷害 發生在收尾及染色階段。 紡織處理會需要很大量的水。 因為石油年代完全轉變了紡織業, 處理所使用的 許多材料和化學物質 都是以石油為基礎的。 所以,加上我們對於快速時尚 永遠無法滿足的胃口, 結果就是每年要掩埋 大量的紡織廢物, 因為眾所皆知, 這些廢物是很難回收的。 所以,再一次, 將它和生物學做對照。 經過 38 億年的演化, 到快速測試原型, 到回收和再補充, 優於我們曾製造過的任何系統。
I was inspired by this immense potential and wanted to explore it through a seemingly simple question -- at the time. If a bacteria produces a pigment, how do we work with it to dye textiles? Well, one of my favorite ways is to grow Streptomyces coelicolor directly onto silk. You can see how each colony produces pigment around its own territory. Now, if you add many, many cells, they generate enough dyestuff to saturate the entire cloth. Now, the magical thing about dyeing textiles in this way -- this sort of direct fermentation when you add the bacteria directly onto the silk -- is that to dye one t-shirt, the bacteria survive on just 200 milliliters of water. And you can see how this process generates very little runoff and produces a colorfast pigment without the use of any chemicals.
我被這巨大的潛能所鼓舞, 想要透過一個似乎 很簡單的問題來探究它── 在那時是如此。 如果細菌能產生色素, 我們如何用它來將織物染色? 我最喜歡的方式之一, 是直接在絲上培養天藍色鏈黴菌。 你們可以看到每個菌落都會 在它的領土周圍產生出色素。 如果你添加許多許多細胞, 它們能生成足夠的染料 將整片布料染色。 神奇的是 這種將織物染色的方式── 直接將細菌添加到絲上的 直接發酵方式── 就是如果要染色一件T恤, 只要 200 毫升的水, 細菌就可以存活。 你們可以看見,這個過程 產生的流量非常少, 不用任何化學物質就能 產生出不褪色的色素。
So now you're thinking -- and you're thinking right -- an inherent problem associated with designing with a living system is: How do you guide a medium that has a life force of its own? Well, once you've established the baseline for cultivating Streptomyces so that it consistently produces enough pigment, you can turn to twisting, folding, clamping, dipping, spraying, submerging -- all of these begin to inform the aesthetics of coelicolor's activity. And using them in a systematic way enables us to be able to generate an organic pattern ... a uniform dye ... and even a graphic print.
所以,現在你們在想── 且你們這樣想是對的── 用生物系統來設計, 天生就會有一個相關的問題: 你要如何引導一個媒介, 如果它本身就有自己的生命力? 一旦你建立起了培養鏈黴菌的基線, 讓它能很一致地產生出足夠的色素, 你就能轉向撚、折、 鉗夾、浸染、噴塗、 淹染── 所有這些做法,都讓天藍色 鏈黴菌活動的美感更有特色。 以系統性的方式來使用它們, 讓我們能夠生成有機的圖案、 染色均勻, 甚至能印圖。
Another problem is how to scale these artisanal methods of making so that we can start to use them in industry. When we talk about scale, we consider two things in parallel: scaling the biology, and then scaling the tools and the processes required to work with the biology. If we can do this, then we can move what happens on a petri dish so that it can meet the human scale, and then hopefully the architecture of our environments.
另一個問題 是要如何擴大這些手作的規模, 使它能被用在產業上? 當我們談到規模, 我們會平行思考兩件事: 將生物學規模擴大, 以及將此生物學所需要的 工具及過程的規模擴大。 如果我們能做到, 我們就能移動培養皿上 所發生的現象, 讓它能符合人類的規模, 希望,接著能符合我們環境的結構。
If Fleming were alive today, this would definitely be a part of his toolkit. You're looking at our current best guess of how to scale biology. It's a bioreactor; a kind of microorganism brewery that contains yeasts that have been engineered to produce specific commodity chemicals and compounds like fragrances and flavors. It's actually connected to a suite of automated hardware and software that read in real time and feed back to a design team the growth conditions of the microbe. So we can use this system to model the growth characteristics of an organism like coelicolor to see how it would ferment at 50,000 liters.
如果佛萊明還活著, 這肯定會是他的工具之一。 你們現在看到的, 是我們目前對如何擴大 生物學規模的最佳猜測。 它是生物反應器; 一種微生物釀造廠,內含有酵母, 設計來製造特定的大量 生產型化學物質和化合物, 像是香氣和口味。 它其實和一系列的 自動化軟硬體有關, 它們能即時做讀取, 將微生物生長條件的資訊 回饋給設計團隊。 所以我們可以用這個系統 來為像天藍色鏈黴菌 這類有機物的生長特性建立模型, 來看看它在五萬公升的 水中會如何發酵。
I'm currently based at Ginkgo Bioworks, which is a biotechnology startup in Boston. I am working to see how their platform for scaling biology interfaces with my artisanal methods of designing with bacteria for textiles. We're doing things like engineering Streptomyces coelicolor to see if it can produce more pigment. And we're even looking at the tools for synthetic biology. Tools that have been designed specifically to automate synthetic biology to see how they could adapt to become tools to print and dye textiles. I'm also leveraging digital fabrication, because the tools that I need to work with Streptomyces coelicolor don't actually exist. So in this case -- in the last week actually, I've just designed a petri dish that is engineered to produce a bespoke print on a whole garment. We're making lots of kimonos.
我目前在 Ginkgo Bioworks 工作, 它是一間生技公司,在波士頓起家。 我正在努力研究如何將 他們的生物學擴展平台 與我的手作設計紡織品的 細菌方法相接合。 我們在做的包括製造天藍色鏈黴菌, 看看它能否產生出更多色素。 我們甚至在研究 合成生物學用的工具。 這些工具是被設計來 讓合成生物學能自動化, 看看它們是否適合做為 織物印刷和染色的工具。 我也在發揮數位製造的功能, 因為我處理天藍色 鏈黴菌所需要的工具 實際上並不存在。 所以,在這個情況下── 其實,就是在上週, 我剛設計了一個培養皿, 設計來產出整件服飾上的訂製圖案。 我們做了很多和服。
Here's the exciting thing: I'm not alone. There are others who are building capacity in this field, like MycoWorks. MycoWorks is a startup that wants to replace animal leather with mushroom leather, a versatile, high-performance material that has applications beyond textiles and into product and architecture. And Bolt Threads -- they've engineered a yeast to produce spider-silk protein that can be spun into a highly programmable yarn. So think water resistance, stretchability and superstrength. To reach economies of scale, these kinds of startups are having to build and design and engineer the infrastructure to work with biology. For example, Bolt Threads have had to engage in some extreme biomimicry. To be able to spin the product this yeast creates into a yarn, they've engineered a yarn-making machine that mimics the physiological conditions under which spiders ordinarily spin their own silk.
有件事很讓人興奮: 我不孤單。 在這個領域還有其他人在建立能力, 就像 MycoWorks。 MycoWorks 是一間新創公司, 他們想要把動物皮革換成蘑菇皮革, 那是一種多功能、高效能的材料, 可以應用到紡織 以外的產品及結構上。 還有 Bolt Threads── 他們製造了一種酵母, 能生產蜘蛛絲蛋白質, 能被織入可高度程控的紗線當中。 想想防水性、 延展性,以及超級強度。 要達成規模經濟, 這類新創公司得要建立、設計, 並製作出必要的基礎設備, 才能和生物學結合。 比如, Bolt Threads 得要用到 一些很極端的仿生學。 為了要吐出這種酵母 在紗線中所創造出的產品, 他們製造了一台造紗線的機器, 它能模仿蜘蛛通常 在吐絲時的生理條件。
So you can start to see how imaginative and inspiring modes of making exist in nature that we can use to build capacity around new bio-based industries. What we now have is the technology to design, build, test and scale these capabilities. At this present moment, as we face the ecological crisis in front of us, what we have to do is to determine how we're going to build these new material systems so that they don't mirror the damaging legacies of the oil age. How we're going to distribute them to ensure a sustainable development that is fair and equitable across the world. And crucially, how we would like the regulatory and ethical frameworks that govern these technologies to interact with our society.
所以,你們能開始見識到 大自然中存在著多有想像力、 多鼓舞人心的製造方式, 讓我們能夠在 以生物為基礎的產業中建立能力。 我們現在擁有的科技 可以用來設計、建立、 測試、擴大這些能力。 在目前, 我們正在面臨生態危機, 我們要做的事,是去決定 我們要如何建造這些新的物質系統, 讓它們不要反映 石油時代的破壞性遺留問題。 我們要如何分配它們, 才能確保在全世界 都公平、平等的永續發展。 我們希望有什麼樣的制度和道德架構 來管理這些科技與我們社會的互動。
Biotechnology is going to touch every part of our lived experience. It is living; it is digital; it is designed, and it can be crafted. This is a material future that we must be bold enough to shape.
生物科技將會觸及我們 生活經驗的每一部分。 它是活的; 它是數位的; 它是設計出來的,且它能被製作。 這是我們必須要 大膽去形塑的物質未來。
Thank you.
謝謝。
(Applause)
(掌聲)