Two hundred years of modern science. We have to admit that our performance is not great. The machines we build continue to suffer from mechanical failures. The houses we build do not survive severe earthquakes. But we shouldn't be so critical of our scientists for a simple reason: they didn't have much time. Two hundred years is not a lot of time, while nature had three billion years to perfect some of the most amazing materials, that we wish we had in our possession. Remember, these materials carry a quality assurance of three billion years.
現代科學兩百年。 我們不得不承認 我們的表現不怎麼好。 我們建造的機器老是故障。 我們蓋的房子無法承受強烈地震。 但我們不應苛責科學家,原因很簡單: 他們的時間有限。 兩百年並不長; 大自然花了三十多億年 使若干材料臻於完美, 完美到我們希望擁有。 切記, 這些材料有著三十億年的品質保證。
Take, for example, sequoia trees. They carry hundreds of tons for hundreds of years in cold weather, in warm climates, UV light. Yet, if you look at the structure by high-resolution electron microscopy, and you ask yourself, what is it made of, surprisingly, it's made of sugar. Well, not exactly as we drink in our tea. It's actually a nanofiber called nanocrystalline cellulose. And this nanocrystalline cellulose is so strong, on a weight basis, it's about 10 times stronger than steel. Yet it's made of sugar.
以紅杉為例: 它們幾百年來載重數百噸, 不論是天冷、天暖, 或被紫外線照射。 若你用高倍率電子顯微鏡 觀察它的結構, 納悶它是什麼東西做成的? 結果出人意表,它的成分是糖。 但不完全等同我們飲料裡的糖。 而實際上是一種被稱為 「奈米纖維素」的奈米纖維。 這種奈米纖維素的不凡強度, 是同等重量鋼材強度的十倍。 然而,它的組成是糖。
So scientists all over the world believe that nanocellulose is going to be one of the most important materials for the entire industry. But here's the problem: say you want to buy a half a ton of nanocellulose to build a boat or an airplane. Well, you can Google, you can eBay, you can even Alibaba. You won't find it. Of course, you're going to find thousands of scientific papers -- great papers, where scientists are going to say this is a great material, there are lots of things we can do with it. But no commercial source.
因此,全世界的科學家咸信 奈米纖維素將會成為 整個工業最重要的材料之一。 但有個問題: 假設你要買半噸的奈米纖維素, 用來造船或飛機。 你可以上Google、eBay, 甚至阿里巴巴的網站搜尋。 (笑聲) 你找不到的。 當然你會找到數以千計的科學論文, 很棒的論文, 科學家在文中描述這種美好的物質, 以及它們的眾多用途。 但是,沒有用於商業的材料來源。
So we at the Hebrew University, together with our partners in Sweden, decided to focus on the development of an industrial-scale process to produce this nanocellulose. And, of course, we didn't want to cut trees. So we were looking for another source of raw material, and we found one -- in fact, the sludge of the paper industry. The reason: there is a lot of it. Europe alone produces 11 million tons of that material annually. It's the equivalent of a mountain three kilometers high, sitting on a soccer field. And we produce this mountain every year. So for everybody, it's an environmental problem, and for us, it's a gold mine.
因此,我們希伯來大學 與瑞典的夥伴合作, 決定專注於開發能以工業規模 大量生產這種奈米纖維素的製程。 而且當然不要砍伐樹木, 而是從其他源頭尋找原料。 我們找到了, 找到的是造紙業的廢渣。 原因是:它的量很充足。 僅歐洲一地,每年就產生 一千一百噸的廢渣。 相當於聳立在足球場中高三公里的山。 並且每年產出一座高山。 對每個人而言,它是個環境問題; 對我們而言,卻是個金礦。
So now, we are actually producing, on an industrial scale in Israel, nanocellulose, and very soon, in Sweden. We can do a lot of things with the material. For example, we have shown that by adding only a small percent of nanocellulose into cotton fibers, the same as my shirt is made of, it increases its strength dramatically. So this can be used for making amazing things, like super-fabrics for industrial and medical applications. But this is not the only thing. For example, self-standing, self-supporting structures, like the shelters that you can see now, actually are now showcasing in the Venice Biennale for Architecture.
現在,我們已在以色列 以工業的規模生產奈米纖維素, 也即將在瑞典大量生產。 這材料有許多用途。 例如, 我們已展示過, 在我們穿的襯衫棉纖維裡, 添加少許奈米纖維素, 它的強度就會大大地增加。 因此,它可被很奇妙地應用在 像工業或醫療之類的超級纖維。 不僅這樣, 例如,能支撐自己、靠自身挺立的結構, 如同你現在看到的避難所, 正在威尼斯建築雙年展中展示。
Nature actually didn't stop its wonders in the plant kingdom. Think about insects. Cat fleas, for example, have the ability to jump about a hundred times their height. That's amazing. It's the equivalent of a person standing in the middle of Liberty Island in New York, and in a single jump, going to the top of the Statue of Liberty. I'm sure everybody would like to do that. So the question is: How do cat fleas do it?
大自然的奇蹟不僅止在植物王國, 舉個昆蟲的例子: 貓蚤 能夠跳至數百倍於它身長的高度。 太棒了。 等同於一個人 站在紐約的自由島中間, 一跳就跳至自由女神像的最高點。 相信每個人都願擁有這能力。 所以,問題是: 貓蚤是如何辦到的呢?
It turns out, they make this wonderful material, which is called resilin. In simple words, resilin, which is a protein, is the most elastic rubber on Earth. You can stretch it, you can squish it, and it doesn't lose almost any energy to the environment. When you release it -- snap! It brings back all the energy. So I'm sure everybody would like to have that material. But here's the problem: to catch cat fleas is difficult.
原來它自身產出這種奇妙的材料, 名為「節肢彈性蛋白」。 簡單地說,節肢彈性蛋白 是一種蛋白質, 是地球上最有彈性的橡膠。 你可以伸展它, 可以壓擠它, 而它幾乎不會流失任何的能量。 一旦你放手,驟然間, 它所有的能量全回來了。 相信每個人都希望擁有它。 但有個問題: 很難捉得到貓蚤。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
Why? Because they are jumpy.
為何呢?
(Laughter)
因為它們很會跳、神經過敏。
(笑聲)
But now, it's actually enough to catch one. Now we can extract its DNA and read how cat fleas make the resilin, and clone it into a less-jumpy organism like a plant. So that's exactly what we did. Now we have the ability to produce lots of resilin.
實際上,抓住一隻就夠了。 今日我們已可提取它的DNA, 解讀出貓蚤如何產生節肢彈性蛋白, 然後複製於不怎麼會跳的生物體, 例如植物。 這正是我們的做法。 我們現有能力製造出 大量的節肢彈性蛋白。
Well, my team decided to do something really cool at the university. They decided to combine the strongest material produced by the plant kingdom with the most elastic material produced by the insect kingdom -- nanocellulose with resilin. And the result is amazing. This material, in fact, is tough, elastic and transparent. So there are lots of things that can be done with this material. For example, next-generation sport shoes, so we can jump higher, run faster. And even touch screens for computers and smartphones, that won't break.
我的大學團隊決定做更酷的事。 他們決定合併 植物王國中最強韌的物質 與昆蟲王國中最具彈性的材料, 也就是合併奈米纖維素與節肢彈性蛋白。 結果非常驚人。 製成的材料堅韌、具彈性且透明。 因此,這種材料的用途極廣。 例如,下一代的運動鞋 可以跳得更高、跑得更快。 或者用於電腦和 智慧型手機的觸控螢幕, 摔不破。
Well, the problem is, we continue to implant synthetic implants in our body, which we glue and screw into our body. And I'm going to say that this is not a good idea. Why? Because they fail. This synthetic material fails, just like this plastic fork, that is not strong enough for its performance. But sometimes they are too strong, and therefore their mechanical properties do not really fit their surrounding tissues.
有個醫療的問題, 是我們一向把合成物植入身體裡面, 用膠水黏,或用螺絲鎖住。 我認為這不是好主意。 為什麼?因為這樣做不成功。 有的合成材料失敗, 就像這只塑料叉子, 性能不夠強。 但有的合成材料力道太強, 它們的機械性能和周圍組織不相配。
But in fact, the reason is much more fundamental. The reason is that in nature, there is no one there that actually takes my head and screws it onto my neck, or takes my skin and glues it onto my body. In nature, everything is self-assembled. So every living cell, whether coming from a plant, insect or human being, has a DNA that encodes for nanobio building blocks. Many times they are proteins. Other times, they are enzymes that make other materials, like polysaccharides, fatty acids. And the common feature about all these materials is that they need no one. They recognize each other and self-assemble into structures -- scaffolds on which cells are proliferating to give tissues. They develop into organs, and together bring life.
但事實上有更根本的原因。 原因是,在本質上, 沒有人的頭 是用螺絲釘鎖在脖子上, 或者皮膚是以膠水黏著於身體。 自然界中,一切自組、渾然天成。 每一個活細胞, 無論是植物、昆蟲或人類的, 其 DNA 具有奈米級的 微小生物基礎架構。 基礎架構通常是蛋白質, 其他時候則是酶, 組成像多醣、脂肪酸等其他材料。 這些材料的和共同特性是: 它們無需其他材料或助力。 它們彼此認識, 能自行組裝、疊架、增生擴散 成為細胞組織。 它們發育成器官,共同帶來生命。
So we at the Hebrew University, about 10 years ago, decided to focus on probably the most important biomaterial for humans, which is collagen. Why collagen? Because collagen accounts for about 25 percent of our dry weight. We have nothing more than collagen, other than water, in our body. So I always like to say, anyone who is in the replacement parts of human beings would like to have collagen.
因此大約十年前,我們希伯來大學 決定重點開發「膠原蛋白」 這種可能是人類最重要的生物材料。 為什麼開發膠原蛋白? 因為人體去掉水分之外的體重, 膠原蛋白約佔25%。 在我們的身體裡, 只有水的重量超過膠原蛋白。 所以我常說, 任何更換的人體部位 都要用到膠原蛋白。
Admittedly, before we started our project, there were already more than 1,000 medical implants made of collagen. You know, simple things like dermal fillers to reduce wrinkles, augment lips, and other, more sophisticated medical implants, like heart valves. So where is the problem? Well, the problem is the source. The source of all that collagen is actually coming from dead bodies: dead pigs, dead cows and even human cadavers. So safety is a big issue. But it's not the only one. Also, the quality.
誠然,在開始我們的計劃之前, 已有超過一千種醫用植入物 是由膠原做成的。 簡單的像是減少皺紋的皮膚填充物、 厚唇填充物等等; 複雜的像是心臟瓣膜 之類的醫療植入物。 那麼問題出在哪兒呢? 問題是來源。 目前所有的膠原蛋白來源 實際上取自屍體,例如: 死豬、死牛, 甚至人類的大體。 因此,安全是個大問題, 但不是唯一的問題, 質量也是問題。
Now here, I have a personal interest. This is my father, Zvi, in our winery in Israel. A heart valve, very similar to the one that I showed you before, seven years ago, was implanted in his body. Now, the scientific literature says that these heart valves start to fail 10 years after the operation. No wonder: they are made from old, used tissues, just like this wall made of bricks that is falling apart. Yeah, of course, I can take those bricks and build a new wall. But it's not going to be the same. So the US Food and Drug Administration made a notice already in 2007, asking the companies to start to look for better alternatives.
我有切身的興趣和需求。 這是家父茲維,背景是 我們在以色列的釀酒廠。 一片像我稍早展示的心臟瓣膜, 在七年前植入他的身體。 科學文獻載明: 這些心臟瓣膜在手術後 十年就會漸漸損壞。 也難怪, 它們是用老舊的組織製成的, 如同這片舊磚牆的磚塊分崩離析。 雖然我能用這些磚塊重新砌牆, 但它無法復原成原狀。 所以美國食品和藥物管理局 已在2007年通知那些公司 務必開始尋找更好的替代品。
So that's exactly what we did. We decided to clone all the five human genes responsible for making type I collagen in humans into a transgenic tobacco plant. So now, the plant has the ability to make human collagen brand new, untouched. This is amazing. Actually, it's happening now. Today in Israel, we grow it in 25,000 square meters of greenhouses all over the country. The farmers receive small plantlets of tobacco. It looks exactly like regular tobacco, except that they have five human genes. They're responsible for making type I collagen. We grow them for about 50 to 70 days, we harvest the leaves, and then the leaves are transported by cooling trucks to the factory. There, the process of extracting the collagen starts.
我們正是在尋找替代品。 我們複製了全部五種 人體負責製造第一型膠原的基因, 將它們移植於煙草植栽中。 如今這些植物 已能產生全新、 未被碰過的人體膠原蛋白。 這件了不起的事 正在實際發生中。 今天以色列全國 有二萬五千平方公尺的 溫室種植這種菸草。 農民領取煙草幼苗, 幼苗看起來與一般菸草無異, 所不同的只是 它們含有五種人類的基因, 負責製作第一型膠原的基因。 植株大約生長50至70天, 然後我們採收葉子, 將葉子用冷藏卡車運送至工廠, 在那裡提取膠原蛋白。
Now, if you ever made a pesto -- essentially, the same thing.
基本上與製作蘿勒青醬的過程相同。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
You crush the leaves, you get the juice that contains the collagen. We concentrate the protein, transfer the protein to clean rooms for the final purification, and the end result is a collagen identical to what we have in our body -- untouched, brand new and from which we make different medical implants: bone void fillers, for example, for severe bone fractures, spinal fusion. And more recently, even, we've been able to launch into the market here in Europe a flowable gel that is used for diabetic foot ulcers, that is now approved for use in the clinic.
搗碎葉子,取得含膠原蛋白的汁液; 濃縮其蛋白質; 轉移到無塵室, 進行最終的純化步驟; 最後製成和我們體內 完全相同的膠原蛋白, 全新未被碰過、用過的膠原蛋白 被用來做成各式各樣的醫療植入物, 例如:骨填充物, 用於治療嚴重骨折或脊椎融合手術。 最近, 我們已在歐洲市場推出 治療糖尿病足潰瘍的流動性凝膠 已被批准臨床使用。
This is not science fiction. This is happening now. We are using plants to make medical implants for replacement parts for human beings. In fact, more recently, we've been able to make collagen fibers which are six times stronger than the Achilles tendon. That's amazing.
這不是科幻故事, 而是現在的實況。 我們正利用植物來製造 用於人體的醫療植入物及替代品。 事實上,最近我們已能做出 強度是阿基里斯腱六倍的膠原纖維。 太美妙了!
Together with our partners from Ireland, we thought about the next thing: adding resilin to those fibers. By doing that, we've been able to make a superfiber which is about 380 percent tougher, and 300 percent more elastic. So oddly enough, in the future, when a patient is transplanted with artificial tendons or ligaments made from these fibers, we'll have better performance after the surgery than we had before the injury.
我們和愛爾蘭的合作夥伴 一起想出接下來要做的事: 把節肢彈性蛋白加到那些纖維中。 這樣做, 我們能做超級纖維, 增加三點八倍的韌性 和三倍的彈性。 所以在未來會很不尋常, 在患者移植了 這些纖維製成的人工肌腱或韌帶後, 手術後的表現會比受傷之前更好。
So what's for the future? In the future, we believe we'll be able to make many nanobio building blocks that nature provided for us -- collagen, nanocellulose, resilin and many more. And that will enable us to make better machines perform better, even the heart. Now, this heart is not going to be the same as we can get from a donor. It will be better. It actually will perform better and will last longer.
那麼,未來會怎樣? 我們相信在未來能夠 做出許多大自然提供的 奈米級的生物結構: 膠原蛋白、奈米纖維素、 節肢彈性蛋白等等。 將使我們能做出表現更好的機器, 甚至心臟。 這樣的心臟與來自器捐者的不同, 而是更好; 會表現得更好, 持續更久。
My friend Zion Suliman once told me a smart sentence. He said, "If you want a new idea, you should open an old book." And I'm going to say that the book was written. It was written over three billion years of evolution. And the text is the DNA of life. All we have to do is read this text, embrace nature's gift to us and start our progress from here.
我的朋友錫安·蘇里曼曾告訴我 很聰明的一句話: 「如果你想有新的想法, 就應該翻開一本舊書。」 而我要說的是, 這本書早已被寫好, 是超過三十多億年的 進化所寫成的, 內容是生命的 DNA 。 我們只要讀這書, 擁抱大自然給我們的禮物, 開始我們的進步里程。
Thank you.
謝謝。
(Applause)
(掌聲)