Let me share with you today an original discovery. But I want to tell it to you the way it really happened -- not the way I present it in a scientific meeting, or the way you'd read it in a scientific paper. It's a story about beyond biomimetics, to something I'm calling biomutualism. I define that as an association between biology and another discipline, where each discipline reciprocally advances the other, but where the collective discoveries that emerge are beyond any single field. Now, in terms of biomimetics, as human technologies take on more of the characteristics of nature, nature becomes a much more useful teacher. Engineering can be inspired by biology by using its principles and analogies when they're advantageous, but then integrating that with the best human engineering, ultimately to make something actually better than nature.
我今天要告訴各位一項新的發現, 我要以事件發生的原貌呈現給各位, 我不想讓你們有參與科學會議報告、 或是閱讀科學期刊的感覺。 這件事超越了生物模仿學, 我把它叫做「互惠生物學」。 我把這個學科定義為生物學與其他學科間的互動, 每一個學科都會互相受惠於其他學科, 但是集眾學科之力,其成果將超越單一學科領域。 以生物模仿學來說, 由於人類科技從自然界學習到許多東西, 大自然就成了一個全能的老師。 工程學則受生物學之啟發, 在運用生物學的原理和功能後獲益良多。 將二者相結合之後, 最終我們將能發展出超越大自然的科技。
Now, being a biologist, I was very curious about this. These are gecko toes. And we wondered how they use these bizarre toes to climb up a wall so quickly. We discovered it. And what we found was that they have leaf-like structures on their toes, with millions of tiny hairs that look like a rug, and each of those hairs has the worst case of split-ends possible: about 100 to 1000 split ends that are nano-size. And the individual has 2 billion of these nano-size split ends. They don't stick by Velcro or suction or glue. They actually stick by intermolecular forces alone, van der Waals forces. And I'm really pleased to report to you today that the first synthetic self-cleaning, dry adhesive has been made. From the simplest version in nature, one branch, my engineering collaborator, Ron Fearing, at Berkeley, had made the first synthetic version. And so has my other incredible collaborator, Mark Cutkosky, at Stanford -- he made much larger hairs than the gecko, but used the same general principles.
身為一個生物學家,我對這個很好奇, 這些是壁虎的腳趾, 我們很好奇為什麼他們能用這麼神奇的腳趾 在牆上迅速地爬行。 我們發現, 他們的腳趾有像樹葉一樣的結構, 上面長滿了數以百萬計的細微毛髮,就像毛毯一樣。 這些細微的毛髮末端嚴重地分叉, 每一個末端都有一百到一千個奈米級的分叉。 一隻壁虎身上大約有二億個這種奈米級的分叉。 他們不是靠魔鬼氈、吸力或是黏膠去吸附在牆上, 而是利用分子間的作用力來吸附, 又稱范氏引力。 我很高興告訴各位, 世界上第一個人工合成、完全不沾黏的乾性黏著劑已經誕生了。 從自然界的壁虎身上, 和我一起共同研究的工程學家Ron Fearing, 在柏克萊製作了第一個人工合成的仿壁虎黏著劑。 還有另一個與我一起研究的科學家 Mark Cutkosky, 在史丹福製作了比壁虎大上許多的毛髮, 但也運用相同的原理。
And here is its first test. (Laughter) That's Kellar Autumn, my former Ph.D. student, professor now at Lewis and Clark, literally giving his first-born child up for this test. (Laughter)
這是他們的第一次測試。 (笑聲) 那是Kellar Autumn,之前是我的博士班學生, 目前在路易斯暨克拉克大學擔任教授, 他把他的老大拿來測試。 (笑聲)
More recently, this happened.
最近,還有這件事。
Man: This the first time someone has actually climbed with it.
男人:這是第一次有人用這種東西進行攀爬。
Narrator: Lynn Verinsky, a professional climber, who appeared to be brimming with confidence.
旁白:Lynn Verinsky是個職業攀爬者, 看起來充滿自信。
Lynn Verinsky: Honestly, it's going to be perfectly safe. It will be perfectly safe.
Lynn Verinsky: 老實說,這很安全,絕對沒問題。
Man: How do you know?
男人:你怎麼知道?
Lynn Verinsky: Because of liability insurance. (Laughter)
Lynn Verinsky: 因為我有買保險。
Narrator: With a mattress below and attached to a safety rope, Lynn began her 60-foot ascent. Lynn made it to the top in a perfect pairing of Hollywood and science.
旁白:下面有安全墊,再綁上安全索, Lynn開始往上爬,她要爬60呎。 Lynn爬上終點, 就像好萊塢與科學的完美結合。
Man: So you're the first human being to officially emulate a gecko.
男人:你是第一個真正模仿壁虎的人。
Lynn Verinsky: Ha! Wow. And what a privilege that has been.
Lynn Verinsky: 哈!哇!那真是榮幸!
Robert Full: That's what she did on rough surfaces. But she actually used these on smooth surfaces -- two of them -- to climb up, and pull herself up. And you can try this in the lobby, and look at the gecko-inspired material. Now the problem with the robots doing this is that they can't get unstuck, with the material. This is the gecko's solution. They actually peel their toes away from the surface, at high rates, as they run up the wall.
Robert Full: 她爬的是粗糙的表面, 但是她也曾利用這個爬上平滑的表面, 分成二個動作,先吸附住,再把自己拉上去。 你們可以在外面的大廳試試這個東西, 看看壁虎啟發我們做出了什麼東西。 現在的問題是,我們在機器人身上裝設了這種材料, 但機器人的手一旦吸附住表面, 就拿不下來了。 這是壁虎的作法,他們會把自己的腳趾從表面上「剝」下來, 用很快的速度, 好讓他們爬上牆壁。
Well I'm really excited today to show you the newest version of a robot, Stickybot, using a new hierarchical dry adhesive. Here is the actual robot. And here is what it does. And if you look, you can see that it uses the toe peeling, just like the gecko does. If we can show some of the video, you can see it climbing up the wall. (Applause) There it is. And now it can go on other surfaces because of the new adhesive that the Stanford group was able to do in designing this incredible robot. (Applause)
我很高興可以向你們展示 最新版本的機器人, 我們將新開發出來的乾式黏著劑運用在這上面。 這就是機器人, 它可以做到這樣, 如果你仔細看, 你會發現 它也把腳趾從表面上「剝」下來, 就像壁虎一樣。 如果我們可以把影片再放長一點,你就會看到它爬到牆壁上了。 (掌聲) 你看, 因為有這種新的黏著劑,所以它可以爬上其他表面, 這是史丹福團隊設計的 了不起的機器人。 (掌聲)
Oh. One thing I want to point out is, look at Stickybot. You see something on it. It's not just to look like a gecko. It has a tail. And just when you think you've figured out nature, this kind of thing happens. The engineers told us, for the climbing robots, that, if they don't have a tail, they fall off the wall. So what they did was they asked us an important question. They said, "Well, it kind of looks like a tail." Even though we put a passive bar there. "Do animals use their tails when they climb up walls?" What they were doing was returning the favor, by giving us a hypothesis to test, in biology, that we wouldn't have thought of.
噢,我想要講一件事,看看那個機器人, 你會看到有一個東西在上面,它不只是看起來像一隻壁虎而已, 它還有尾巴。你以為你夠瞭解大自然了, 但其實不是。 工程師告訴我們, 如果不幫這隻會爬的機器人裝上尾巴, 它就會從牆上掉下來。 所以他們提出了一個 重要的問題, 他們說:「嗯,這看起來像條尾巴。」 即使我們只是裝飾性地裝了一條沒有作用的尾巴在那裡。 「動物在爬牆的時候會用到尾巴嗎?」 他們這麼做反而是幫了我們一個忙, 讓我們就這個假設進行測試, 因為我們這些生物學家壓根也沒想到這件事。
So of course, in reality, we were then panicked, being the biologists, and we should know this already. We said, "Well, what do tails do?" Well we know that tails store fat, for example. We know that you can grab onto things with them. And perhaps it is most well known that they provide static balance. (Laughter) It can also act as a counterbalance. So watch this kangaroo. See that tail? That's incredible! Marc Raibert built a Uniroo hopping robot. And it was unstable without its tail. Now mostly tails limit maneuverability, like this human inside this dinosaur suit. (Laughter) My colleagues actually went on to test this limitation, by increasing the moment of inertia of a student, so they had a tail, and running them through and obstacle course, and found a decrement in performance, like you'd predict. (Laughter) But of course, this is a passive tail. And you can also have active tails.
這當然讓我們覺得很緊張, 因為身為生物學家的我們,早就應該知道這件事才對。 於是我們想:「嗯,尾巴有什麼用途?」 我們知道尾巴儲存脂肪, 或是可以用尾巴勾住某個東西讓自己不要掉下去, 或是如同大家都知道的, 尾巴是用來保持平衡的。 (笑聲) 尾巴可以用來保持平衡, 讓我們看看這隻袋鼠, 看到它的尾巴了嗎?真的很不可思議! Marc Raibert仿袋鼠做了一個跳動機器人, 如果沒有裝上尾巴,就不能保持穩定。 大部分的尾巴都會妨礙行動, 就像這個穿上恐龍裝的人一樣。 (笑聲) 我的同事還針對這一點進行了測試, 測試延長慣性作用的時間,所以他們讓一個學生裝上象徵性的尾巴, 然後在一群障礙物裡跑, 發現速度都降低了。 就跟大家想得一樣。 (笑聲) 但是,這是個沒有作用的尾巴, 你也可以換上有功能的尾巴。
And when I went back to research this, I realized that one of the great TED moments in the past, from Nathan, we've talked about an active tail.
當我回去研究這個問題的時候, 我發現以前Nathan曾發表一個 TED演說, 就談到了具有功能的尾巴。
Video: Myhrvold thinks tail-cracking dinosaurs were interested in love, not war.
影片:Myhrvold認為揮動尾巴的恐龍, 其實是要追求異性,而不是要打架。
Robert Full: He talked about the tail being a whip for communication. It can also be used in defense. Pretty powerful. So we then went back and looked at the animal. And we ran it up a surface. But this time what we did is we put a slippery patch that you see in yellow there. And watch on the right what the animal is doing with its tail when it slips. This is slowed down 10 times. So here is normal speed. And watch it now slip, and see what it does with its tail. It has an active tail that functions as a fifth leg, and it contributes to stability. If you make it slip a huge amount, this is what we discovered. This is incredible. The engineers had a really good idea.
Robert Full: 他認為像鞭子一樣揮動的尾巴,其實是在傳遞訊息, 也可以用來防衛, 很有力的工具。 所以我們再回來看看壁虎, 我們把它趕上一堵牆壁, 但我們在牆上補了一塊 黃色的光滑板子, 然後注意看右邊,看看壁虎在快要滑下來的時候, 它的尾巴會發生什麼作用。我們把影片速度放慢十倍, 這是正常速度, 現在它要滑下來了, 看它的尾巴在做什麼。 它的尾巴發揮了第五隻腳的作用, 讓它可以保持平衡。 如果你把光滑的區域再放大多一點,就會看到這種情形, 真的很不可思議! 這些工程師的想法真的很棒!
And then of course we wondered, okay, they have an active tail, but let's picture them. They're climbing up a wall, or a tree. And they get to the top and let's say there's some leaves there. And what would happen if they climbed on the underside of that leaf, and there was some wind, or we shook it? And we did that experiment, that you see here. (Applause) And this is what we discovered. Now that's real time. You can't see anything. But there it is slowed down.
我們當然會想, 好,他們的尾巴有作用,那麼再想想看, 如果他們爬上一堵牆,或一棵樹, 然後爬到頂端有樹葉的部分, 如果他們爬到樹葉背面的時候, 剛好有風吹過來,或者我們搖晃那個樹幹,結果會怎樣? 所以我們做了那個實驗,你看看。 (掌聲) 這是我們拍攝的影片, 用正常速度播放,你什麼都看不到, 所以放慢速度。
What we discovered was the world's fastest air-righting response. For those of you who remember your physics, that's a zero-angular-momentum righting response. But it's like a cat. You know, cats falling. Cats do this. They twist their bodies. But geckos do it better. And they do it with their tail. So they do it with this active tail as they swing around. And then they always land in the sort of superman skydiving posture. Okay, now we wondered, if we were right, we should be able to test this in a physical model, in a robot.
我們看到世界上最快的空中翻轉, 你們如果還記得一點物理常識的話,這就是角動量為零的反應。 但它的動作看起來像貓, 就像貓掉下來的反應,貓也會這樣,他們會旋轉自己的身體。 但是壁虎做得更好, 因為他們會運用自己的尾巴。 當他們在旋轉的時候,有用到尾巴的力量, 所以降落的時候就像超人在空中下降的姿勢一樣。 接下來我們想,如果我們想得沒錯, 我們應該在實體模型上測試一下,就是在機器人上測試。
So for TED we actually built a robot, over there, a prototype, with the tail. And we're going to attempt the first air-righting response in a tail, with a robot. If we could have the lights on it. Okay, there it goes. And show the video. There it is. And it works just like it does in the animal. So all you need is a swing of the tail to right yourself. (Applause)
為了TED,我們真的打造了一個機器人, 是原型機器人,有尾巴的哦。 所以我們打算在這個有尾巴的機器人身上, 測試第一次的空中翻轉。 請打開燈光, 好,可以開始了。 請看影片, 就是這樣, 就像是動物的動作一樣。 所以你只需要一條尾巴來幫助你旋轉。 (掌聲)
Now, of course, we were normally frightened because the animal has no gliding adaptations, so we thought, "Oh that's okay. We'll put it in a vertical wind tunnel. We'll blow the air up, we'll give it a landing target, a tree trunk, just outside the plexi-glass enclosure, and see what it does. (Laughter) So we did. And here is what it does. So the wind is coming from the bottom. This is slowed down 10 times. It does an equilibrium glide. Highly controlled. This is sort of incredible. But actually it's quite beautiful, when you take a picture of it. And it's better than that, it -- just in the slide -- maneuvers in mid-air. And the way it does it, is it takes its tail and it swings it one way to yaw left, and it swings its other way to yaw right. So we can maneuver this way. And then -- we had to film this several times to believe this -- it also does this. Watch this. It oscillates its tail up and down like a dolphin. It can actually swim through the air. But watch its front legs. Can you see what they are doing? What does that mean for the origin of flapping flight? Maybe it's evolved from coming down from trees, and trying to control a glide. Stay tuned for that. (Laughter)
我們會覺得驚訝, 是因為壁虎並沒有滑翔的本領, 所以我們想:「好吧,我們把壁虎放進一個垂直的風管, 吹氣上來,然後設定一個降落點,就設定一個樹幹吧... 放在塑膠玻璃圍籬的外面,看看它的反應如何。」 (笑聲) 我們真的做了,請看影片。 風會從底下吹上來,這是速度放慢十倍的影片, 它滑翔得非常平穩,控制得非常好, 真是令人不敢相信!你如果替它照張相, 其實還挺美的呢! 還不只這樣,在它滑動的時候,它還可以在空中轉向, 它將尾巴擺動向一邊 好向左偏轉,然後再擺動向另一邊再向右偏轉, 就是靠這個動作來轉向的。 還有,我們看了好幾次影片才相信它會做這個動作, 看,它還會做這個動作, 它會像海豚一樣上下擺動尾巴, 就像在空中游泳一樣。 再看看它的前腳,看到它在做什麼嗎? 像不像在振翅飛翔? 或許這是由樹上下來的動作演化而來, 然後它試著做得像滑翔一樣。 別轉台哦! (笑聲)
So then we wondered, "Can they actually maneuver with this?" So there is the landing target. Could they steer towards it with these capabilities? Here it is in the wind tunnel. And it certainly looks like it. You can see it even better from down on top. Watch the animal. Definitely moving towards the landing target. Watch the whip of its tail as it does it. Look at that. It's unbelievable.
然後我們又想:「他們真的能夠控制方向嗎?」 所以我們設了一個降落點,看他們能不能降落在那裡? 現在它在風管裡, 它好像很享受的樣子, 你看到它上升的時候做得更好, 看看這隻壁虎, 完全朝降落點前進。 看看它尾巴的擺動,你看看, 真是令人不敢相信!
So now we were really confused, because there are no reports of it gliding. So we went, "Oh my god, we have to go to the field, and see if it actually does this." Completely opposite of the way you'd see it on a nature film, of course. We wondered, "Do they actually glide in nature?" Well we went to the forests of Singapore and Southeast Asia. And the next video you see is the first time we've showed this.
我們有點搞不清楚了, 因為以前從來沒有人說過壁虎會滑翔。 所以我們想:「天啊!我們得到野外去, 看看野外的壁虎是不是真的會滑翔。」 這完全和你看的野生動物影片製作的觀點相反, 我們想:「他們真的會在野外滑翔嗎?」 我們跑到新加坡和東南亞的森林裡去, 等會兒你們將會看到首次公開播映的影片。
This is the actual video -- not staged, a real research video -- of animal gliding down. There is a red trajectory line. Look at the end to see the animal. But then as it gets closer to the tree, look at the close-up. And see if you can see it land. So there it comes down. There is a gecko at the end of that trajectory line. You see it there? There? Watch it come down. Now watch up there and you can see the landing. Did you see it hit? It actually uses its tail too, just like we saw in the lab.
這是真實的野外影片,不是設計過的, 是真的研究壁虎滑翔下來的影片--那兒有一條紅色的滑翔線, 在末端可以看到壁虎, 當它靠近樹的時候, 要注意看特寫鏡頭,看看你是否能看到它降落的畫面。 它下來了,有一隻壁虎在滑翔線的末端, 看到了嗎?在那裡,它下來了, 你看上面的特寫鏡頭就會看到它降落的畫面,看到了嗎? 它真的有用它的尾巴幫忙, 就像我們在實驗室裡看到的一樣。
So now we can continue this mutualism by suggesting that they can make an active tail. And here is the first active tail, in the robot, made by Boston Dynamics. So to conclude, I think we need to build biomutualisms, like I showed, that will increase the pace of basic discovery in their application. To do this though, we need to redesign education in a major way, to balance depth with interdisciplinary communication, and explicitly train people how to contribute to, and benefit from other disciplines. And of course you need the organisms and the environment to do it. That is, whether you care about security, search and rescue or health, we must preserve nature's designs, otherwise these secrets will be lost forever. And from what I heard from our new president, I'm very optimistic. Thank you. (Applause)
所以我們可以繼續這種互惠的機制, 告訴這些工程師他們可以製作一條有作用的尾巴。 這是第一個裝設有作用的尾巴的機器人, 由Boston Dynamics製作。 結論是,我覺得我們應該建立生物互惠學的機制,就像我所展示的, 這樣會增進基礎科學進步的腳步。 但要做到這一步,我們必須對教育做出重大改變, 以加強各學科間溝通的深度, 並讓各學科的專家有機會教學相長。 當然這需要環境的配合,以及適當的機制。 不管你在不在乎安全、搜救、救援或健康, 我們都必須保護大自然的設計, 否則這些祕密將會永遠遺失。 而我從新任總統的談話中得知, 我可以對這件事抱持樂觀的態度,謝謝各位。 (掌聲)