So I'd like you to join me on a field trip, and I want to go to the beach,
我想邀请你们加入这趟野外实地考察，我想去海边，
and take you all to the beach and so enjoy the sea air and the salt spray.
就带你们去海边，享受带有海水盐味的空气。
And let's go down to the water's edge,
然后一直走到岸边，
and you're going to notice is we're getting knocked around by the waves, and it's really difficult to stay in place.
你会发现我们正被海浪包围着，所以我们很难站稳。
But now, look down, and what you're going to see is that
但是现在，往下看，你将会看到
the rocks are covered by all sorts of sea creatures that are just staying there in place, no problem.
各式各样的海洋生物附着在岩石上，他们就只是呆在原地，一点也没问题。
And it turns out that if you want to survive in this really demanding environment,
这就证明如果你想要在这极为恶劣的环境中生存，
your very existence is dependent upon your ability to make glue, actually.
你的存亡取决于你产生黏液的能力。
So let me introduce you to some of the heroes of our story, just a few of them.
所以让我来向你们介绍一下故事中的主角，先讲几个好了。
So these are mussels, and you'll notice they're covering the rocks.
首先是一些贻贝，你将会发现他们是覆盖在岩石上的。
They've made adhesives, and they're sticking down on the rocks, and they're also sticking to each other, actually.
他们制造了黏液，并牢牢地粘在石头上，他们也相互粘着。
So they're hunkered down together as a group.
所以他们以群体的形式躲在一起。
This is a close-up photograph of an oyster reef, and oysters, they're amazing.
这就是牡蛎礁石的特写镜头，牡蛎也是奇妙的生物。
What they do is they cement to each other, and they build these huge, extensive reef systems.
他们彼此紧紧粘着，从而建造了这些数量多、规模大的礁石系统。
They can be kilometers long, they can be meters deep,
有些礁石有数千米长，数米深，
and arguably, they're the most dominant influence on how healthy any coastal marine ecosystem is going to be,
它们很有可能是决定着任何海岸生物系统的健康的主要因素，
because what they do is they're filtering the water constantly, they're holding sand and dirt in place.
因为它们正在不断地过滤海水，把沙子和污垢留在岸上。
Actually, other species live inside of these reefs.
事实上，其他生物也住在这些礁石里。
And then, if you think about what happens when a storm comes in,
你也许会想如果风暴来临又会发生什么呢，
if the storm surge first has to hit miles of these reefs, the coast behind it is going to be protected.
如果风暴突然来临，它会先击打这些数英里长的礁石，在它后面的海岸将会被保护。
So they're really quite influential.
所以它们真的非常重要。
If you've been to any rocky beach pretty much anywhere in the world, you're probably familiar with what barnacles look like.
全世界有非常多的礁石海滩，如果你有去过任何一个，你可能很熟悉藤壶长什么样子。
What these animals do -- and there's many others, these are just three of them -- is they make adhesives,
这些动物确实--还有其他许多生物，这里只是其中的三个，它们制造黏液，
they stick to each other, they stick to the rocks and they build communities,
它们相互粘在一起，粘在石头上，建立群落，
and by doing this, there's a lot of survival advantages they get.
它们通过这种方式获得更多的生存优势。
So one of them is that just any individual is subjected to less of the turbulence and all the damaging features that can happen from that environment.
其中一个优势就是任何个体受湍流及其他环境损害的影响较小，
So they're all hunkered down there.
所以它们一起躲在那里。
Then, also, there's a safety in numbers thing, because it also helps you keep away the predators,
除此之外，安全也是其中一个优势，因为这也帮助它们远离捕食者，
because if, say, a seagull wants to pick you up and eat you, it's more difficult for the seagull if they're all stuck together.
因为，如果说，一只海鸥想要把你叼起来吃掉，如果它们彼此紧紧地黏在一起，那海鸥就很难抓它们。
And then another thing is it also helps with reproductive efficiency.
另外一点，这也有助于它们有效繁衍。
So you can imagine that when Mr. and Mrs. Barnacle decide, "OK, it's time to have little baby barnacles"
你可以想象一下，当藤壶先生和藤壶小姐决定，“好，是拥有小藤壶宝宝的时候了”，
I won't tell you how they do that just yet -- but when they decide it's time to do that,
我先不告诉你们它们是如何做的，但当它们觉得时机到了，
it's a lot easier and their reproductive efficiency is higher if they're all living close together.
如果住得近，它们会更简单、高效地繁衍。
So we want to understand how they do this, how do they stick, and I can't really tell you all the details,
我们想要去了解它们如何黏在一起的，我无法告诉你全部的细节，
because it's something we're still trying to figure out,
因为我们仍在试图弄清楚它们，
but let me give you a little flavor of some of the things that we're trying to do.
但我想让你们先了解一下我们正在做的事情。
This is a picture of one of the aquarium systems we have in our lab,
这张图片是我们实验室里其中一个水生系统，
and everything in the image is part of the system, and so what we do is we keep
图中所呈现的是这个系统的一部分，我们要做的就是饲养，
and you can see in the glass tank there in the bottom, there's a bunch of mussels,
你可以看到在玻璃水箱的底部有一群贻贝，
we have the water chilled, we have the lights cycled,
我们将水冷却，让光源循环，
we actually have turbulence in the system because the animals make more adhesives for us when the water is turbulent.
事实上我们在系统里设置了湍流，因为当湍流产生时，这些动物可以为我们产生更多的黏液。
So we induce them to make the adhesive, we collect it, we study it. They're here in Indiana.
我们引导它们产生黏液，然后我们收集、学习它。它们现在在印第安纳州。
As far as they know, they're in Maine in February, and they seem to be pretty happy, as far as we can tell.
但对贻贝来说，它们正在二月份的缅因海边，它们应该挺高兴的，就我所知。
And then we also work with oysters, and up top, it's a photo of a small reef in South Carolina,
我们也研究牡蛎，上面那张图片是在南卡罗来纳州的小礁石，
and what we're most interested in is seeing how they attach to each other, how they connect.
我们最感兴趣的是它们如何粘着彼此，它们如何相互连接。
And so what you can see in the bottom image is there's two oysters that are cementing to each other.
你看下面这张图，这是两个相互融在一起的牡蛎。
And we want to know what's in between, and so a lot of times, we'll cut them and look down,
我们想知道在这中间有什么，所以很多次我们将他们分开，然后观察，
and in the next series of images we have here, you can see, on the bottom, we'll have two shells,
接下来的一组图片，在左下角的这张图片里有两个壳，
the shell of one animal and the shell of another animal, and the cement's in between.
一个动物的壳和另一个动物的壳，黏合物在中间。
And if you look at the image on the right, what you can maybe see is that there's structure in the shell of each animal,
如果你看右边这张图，你可能看见每个动物壳里都有结构，
but then, the cement actually looks different.
然而黏合物看起来并不一样。
And so we're using all sorts of fancy biology and chemistry tools to understand what's going on in there,
所以我们正用各种生物和化学工具，试图去了解这里面究竟有什么，
and what we're finding is the structures are different and the chemistry is actually different, and it's quite interesting.
我们发现这些结构是不一样的，并且化学成分也不一样，这就十分的有趣。
And then this picture -- I guess let me step back before I tell you what this is.
这张图在我告诉你们这是什么前，我想先回顾一下。
So do you know the cartoon "The Magic School Bus"?
你知道《神奇校车》这部动画片吗？
Or if you're a little bit older, "Fantastic Voyage," right?
或者如果你年龄更大一点的话，知道《神奇之旅》这部电影吗？
And you remember, they had these characters that they would shrink down to these microscopic levels,
你记得这些动画片，他们把里面的角色缩小到微粒大小，
and then they would sort of swirl in and swim around and fly around all these biological structures?
然后一番天旋地转，在这些生物构造旁游过飞过？
I think of this as like that, except for it's real, in this case.
这里有点像卡通、电影里那样，而我们真的在这样做。
And so what we did is we have two oysters that are stuck together,
我们有两个粘在一起的牡蛎，
and this area used to be completely filled in with the cement,
这块区域曾被填满黏合物，
and what we're finding is that the cement has lots of different components in there,
我们发现在这里黏合物有许多不同的成份，
but broadly speaking, there are hard, non-sticky parts and there are soft, sticky parts,
但一般来说，他们分为很牢固却非黏性的部分和很柔软又有黏性的部分，
and what we did is we removed the non-sticky parts selectively to see what's left for what's actually attaching the animals,
我们选择性地移除非黏性部分，由此观察究竟是什么连接着动物，
and what we got is this, and we can see there's this sticky adhesive that's holding them together.
我们收获了这个，这些就是将它们粘在一起的黏合物。
And I just think it's a really cool image, because you can imagine yourself flying in and going back there.
我认为这张图片真的很酷。因为你可以想象自己飞进去再回来。
Anyways, those are some of the things we're doing to understand how marine biology is making these materials.
不管怎样，我们做这些是为了理解海洋生物是如何产生这些物质。
And from a fundamental perspective, it's really exciting to learn.
从根本上看，学习这些真的很令人兴奋。
But what we do want to do with this information?
但是有了这些信息后，我们想要做什么呢？
Well, there's a lot of technological applications if we can harness what the animals are doing.
若我们可以学习利用动物生产黏液的方式，我们可以将其应用在许多科技上。
So let me give you one example.
我来举一个例子。
So imagine you're at home and you break your favorite figurine or a mug or something like that?
想象你在家里，你打碎了最喜爱的小雕像或杯子或类似的东西。
You want to put it back together. So where do you go?
你想把它拼回去。你会去哪里？
You go to my favorite place in town, which is the glue aisle of the hardware store.
你会去镇上我最爱的地方，五金店里的胶水货架。
I know where you spend your nights, because you're all hip, cool people, because you're here,
我知道你们是在哪里度过你们的夜晚，你们都是很时尚、很酷的人，所以会在这里，
and you're going to the bars and concerts -- this is where I hang out every night.
你们回去酒吧或者音乐会，这是我每晚都会去闲晃的地方。
So anyways, so what I want you to do is get one of every adhesive that's on the shelf, bring it home,
我想让你做的是，把货架上的每一种胶水都拿一个，带回家，
but before you try to put things back together, I want you to try to do it in a bucket of water.
在你试图将碎片拼回去前，我想要你先在水中试试。
It's not going to work, right? We all know this.
不起作用，对吗？我们都知道。
So obviously, marine biology has solved this, so what we need to do is figure out ways to be able to copy this ourselves.
显然，海洋生物解决了这个问题，我们需要做的是找出复制这个行为的解决方法。
And one of the issues here is, you can't just go and get the materials from the beach,
其中有个问题是，你不能直接去海边获得这些物质，
because if you get a bunch of mussels and try to milk them for their adhesive,
因为如果你有一群贻贝，尝试挤出里面的黏液，
you'll get a little bit of material, but you're never going to have enough to do anything with, just enough to see.
你只能得到一点点，但这远不够满足你所做的事，只够看罢了。
We need to scale this up, ideally maybe train car scale.
我们需要扩大这个规模，最好是一节火车厢的量。
So on the top is an image of one of the types of molecules that the animals are using to make their glue,
上面的图片是动物用来制造胶体的一种分子，
and what they are is they're very long molecules, they're called proteins,
它们是很长的分子，叫做蛋白质，
and these proteins happen to have some fairly unique parts in them that bring about the adhesive properties.
这些蛋白质有一些特殊的成份，这些成份可以产生有黏性的物质。
What we want to do is take those little parts of that chemistry,
我们想提取小部分化学成分，
and we want to put it into other long molecules that we can get but things that we can make on a really large scale,
放入我们所获的的其他长分子中，我们可以真正大规模的生产，
so you might know them as plastics or polymers, and so we're sort of simplifying what they do,
你可能会称它们“塑料”或“聚合物”，我们简化了它们所做的一切，
but then putting that adhesion chemistry into these large molecules.
然后把黏性的化学成分放入这些大分子中。

And we've developed many different adhesive systems in doing this,
由此我们研制出许多不同的黏性系统，
and when you make a new adhesive that looks pretty good, what do you do?
当你制造出一个看起来很不错的黏合剂时，你会做什么呢？
You start running around the lab, just sticking stuff together.
你会在实验室里到处乱窜，到处粘东西。
We took a tiny bit of a glue and glued together two pieces of metal and we wanted to hang something from it,
我们取一点胶水，把两片金属粘在一起，我们想在上挂点东西，
so we used a pot of live mussels and thought we were very clever.
所以我们用了一桶活的贻贝，自认为很聪明。
We're obviously much more quantitative about this most often, and so we benchmark against commercial adhesives,
当然我们常常把这个量化了，我们将其与市场上胶水进行比较，
and we actually have some materials now that are stronger than superglue.
事实上，我们现在有着比超强力胶水更厉害的黏合物。
So to me, that's really cool. That's a good day in the lab. It's stronger than superglue.
对我来说，这很酷。那是在实验室里很美好的一天，它们比强力胶更厉害！
And here's something else that we can do.
我们还做到了这个。
So this is a tank of seawater, and then, in that syringe is one of our adhesive formulations,
这是一缸海水，注射器里是其中一个黏液配方，
and what we're doing is we're dispensing it completely underwater, on a piece of metal.
我们正在做的是，完全在水下的一块金属片上点胶。
And then, we want to make an adhesive bond, or joint,
我们想要制作一个黏性纽带或黏合点，
and so we take another piece of metal and we put it on there and just position it.
所以我们取另一个金属片，把它放在那里，只是调整位置。
And you want to let it set up for a while, give it a chance, so we'll just put a weight on it, nothing fancy.
让胶先干一会，给点时间，在上面增加点重量，没什么复杂的。
This is a tube with lead shot in it, nothing fancy. And then you let it sit for a while.
这是一个含铅的管子，也没什么特别的。然后静置它一会。
So this has never seen air. It's completely underwater. And you pick it up.
这从头至尾都没有接触空气，完全在水下操作。把它拿起来。
I never know what's going to happen. I'm always very anxious here. Pick it up ... and it's stuck.
我不知道将会发生什么事，所以到这里我很紧张。拿起来... 它粘住了。
To me, this is really cool. So we can actually get very strong underwater adhesion.
对我来说，这真的很棒。我们可以得到很强的水下黏附力。
Possibly, it's the strongest or at least one of the strongest underwater adhesives that's ever been seen.
这可能是前所未有的最强，或至少是最强的水下黏合剂之一。
It's even stronger than the materials that the animals produce, so for us, it's pretty exciting. It's pretty cool.
它比动物产生的物质还要牢固，对我们而言，这真的太让人激动，太酷了。
So what do we want to do with these things?
那我们拿这些东西来做什么呢？
Well, here are some products that you're probably really familiar with.
这里有一些你可能很熟悉的东西。
So think about your cell phone, your laptop, plywood in most structures,
想想你的手机、笔记本电脑、大多数结构用的胶合板，
the interior of your car, shoes, phone books, things like this.
你车里的内饰、鞋子、电话本等等。
They're all held together with adhesives, and there's two main problems with the adhesives used in these materials.
它们都用黏合剂粘在一起，这些产品用的黏合剂有两个问题。
The first one is that they're toxic. So the worst offender here is plywood.
第一，它们是有毒的。这里最糟糕的是胶合板。
Plywood, or a lot of furniture, or wood laminate in floors
胶合板或许多小雕塑，或复合地板，
a main component of the adhesives here is formaldehyde, and it's maybe a compound you've heard of.
这些黏合剂的最主要成份是甲醛，你可能听过这个化合物。
It's a gas, and it's also a carcinogen,
它是一种气体，也是一种致癌物质，
and so we're constructing a lot of structures from these adhesives, and we're also breathing a lot of this carcinogen.
所以我们用这些黏合剂来组建结构时，我们也吸入了大量的致癌物质。
So not good, obviously. Right?
显然这不好，对吧？
The other issue is that these adhesives are all permanent.
另一个问题是这些黏合剂都是永久的。
And so what do you do with your shoes or your car or even your laptop at the end of life, when you're done using it?
你会怎么处理期限快到的鞋子、车甚至是你的笔记本电脑？
For the most part, they end up in landfills.
这些东西的大多数最后都进入了垃圾场。
And there's a lot of precious materials in there we'd love to be able to get out and recycle them.
在那里有许多珍贵的材料，我们想把他们取出来回收利用。
We can't do it so easily because they're all stuck together permanently.
但这并不容易做到，因为它们永久地粘在了一起。
So here's one approach we're taking to try and solve some of these problems,
所以我们可以采用一种方法尝试解决部分问题，
and what we've done here is we've taken another long molecule that we can actually get from corn,
我们做的就是从玉米中提取另一个长分子，
and then into that molecule, we've put some of the adhesion chemistry from the mussels.
然后将贻贝的一些粘性化学成分放入那条分子里。
So because we've got the corn and we've got the mussels, we call this our surf-and-turf polymer.
因为我们既用了玉米又用了贻贝，所以我们称它为海陆聚合物。
And it sticks. It sticks really well. It's very strong. It's also bio-based. That's nice.
它黏性很好。也十分牢固。它是生物型材料，这点很棒。
But maybe more importantly, here, it's also degradable, and we can degrade it under very mild conditions, with water.
但可能更重要的是，它是可降解的，我们可以在十分温和的条件下用水降解。
And so what we can do is we can set things up and we can bond them strongly when we want,
所以我们将东西黏在一起，如果需要，可以将它们黏的很牢，
but then we can also take them apart. It's something we're thinking about.
然后我们也可以拆开它们。这就是我们正在研究的东西。
And here is a place where a lot of us want to be.
这是许多人都想要的。
Well, actually, in this specific case, this is a place we do not want to be, but we'd like to replace this.
但坦白来说，我们都不想碰到这种情况，我们想将它们取而代之。
So sutures, staples, screws: this is how we put you back together if you've had some surgery or an injury.
缝合线、订钉、螺丝，当你们在做手术或受伤时，医生用它们将伤口缝合。
It's just awful. It hurts. In the case of the sutures,
这很可怕，也很痛。以缝合线为例，
look at how much you're making concentrated, mechanical stresses as you pull things together.
当你需要缝合伤口时，你要花多少的精力和体力。
You're making sites for infection. Poke holes in healthy tissue. It's not so good.
你正在制造感染。在健康组织里戳洞，这很不好。
Or if you need a plate to hold together your bones,
或者你需要板子来固定衔接骨头，
look at how much healthy bone you have to drill out just to hold the plate in place. So this is awful.
看看你要钻穿多少健康的骨头，只是为了放一块板子在那。所以这多么糟糕。
To me, it looks like these were things devised in a medieval torture chamber, but it's our modern surgical joinery.
对我来说，它看起来像中世纪刑讯室发明的东西，而它确是现代外科医生的工具。
So I'd love it if we could replace systems like these with adhesives. We're working on this, but this is not easy.
所以我非常期待可以用黏合剂来取代这些系统。这不简单，我们正在做着研究。
So think about what you would need for adhesives in these cases.
想想看在这些情况下你需要有怎样特性的黏合剂。
So first of all, you would need an adhesive that is going to set in a wet environment.
首先，它必须可以在潮湿环境中起效。
And if you look at the silly little picture there,
如果你看下这张有点蠢的图片，
it's just to illustrate that our bodies are about 60 percent water, so it's a wet environment.
这张图说明了我们人体里百分之六十都是水，所以是一个潮湿的环境。
It's also to illustrate that this is why I am a scientist and not an artist. I did not miss my calling at all.
这张图也证明了为什么我是科学家而不是画家。我完全没有选错职业。
So then the other requirements you need for a good biomedical adhesive:
为了好的生物医学黏合剂，还需要满足另一个要求：
it needs to bond strongly, of course, and it needs to not be toxic.
它需要很牢固地粘合在一起，并且它还是无毒的。
You don't want to hurt the patients. And getting any two of those requirements in a material is pretty easy.
你不想伤害你的病人。一个物质满足任意两个要求还是很容易的。
It's been done many times. But getting all three hasn't been done. It's very hard.
它已经被试验很多次了。但要满足全部三个条件还是很困难的。
And if you start talking to surgeons,
如果你去咨询医生，
they get picky -- "Oh, actually I want the adhesive to set on the same time frame as the surgery."
他们会对此挑剔，“事实上，我想要黏合剂在手术就凝固。”
Or, "Oh, I want the adhesive to degrade so the patient's tissues can remodel the site."
或者，“我想要黏合剂可以降解，这样患者的组织就可以重组。”
So this is really hard. We're working on it. This is just one image we have.
这着实很难。但我们正在研究。这只是我们拍摄的一张照片。
So what we're doing is we're getting all sorts of bones and skin and soft and hard tissue,
我们正在用各种骨头、皮肤、软组织、硬组织，
and sometimes we'll whack it with a hammer.
有时候我们将会用锤子敲碎它们。
Usually, we're cutting it in precise shapes. And then we glue them back together.
通常我们会将它切成精确的形状。然后再把它们黏回去。
We've got some exciting results, some strong materials, some things that look like they're not toxic, they set wet,
我们已经得到一些令人兴奋的成果，一些强韧的物质，一些看起来无毒、耐潮的东西，
but I'm not going to tell you we've solved the wet adhesion problem,
但是我不能说我们已经解决了潮湿黏附力的问题，
because we haven't, but it's certainly in our sights for the future.
因为我们还没完成，但它肯定是我们未来的目标。
So that's one place that we'd like to see things go farther down the road.
这是我们期待看到有更多发展的领域之一。
And there are a lot of other places, too, you can imagine we might be better off if we could get more adhesives in there.
当然还有许多其他的领域，你可以想象一下，我们的生活将会更好，如果我们可以获得更多黏合剂。
Even cosmetics. So if you think about people putting on fake nails or eyelash extensions, what do they use?
甚至是化妆品。有些人会美甲或带假睫毛，他们会用什么？
They use very toxic adhesives right now. So it's just ripe for replacement. That's something we'd like to do.
现在用的都是毒性很强的黏合剂。是时候替换掉了。这就是我们想做的事。
And then there are other places too. So think about cars and planes.
也有其他一些领域，像车、飞机。
The lighter you can make them, the more fuel-efficient they're going to be.
它们制造得越轻就越省油。
And so if we can get away from rivets and get away from welding and put more adhesives in there,
所以如果我们可以用更多的黏合剂来替代铆钉和焊接，
then we might be better off with our future generation of transportation.
我们的生活也可能会更好，未来的交通会便利。
So for us, this all comes back to the beach.
我们回到海滩边。
So we look around and we wonder, "How do these sea creatures stick? And what can we do with the technology?"
环顾四周，我们想问，“这些海洋生物是如何粘起来的？我们可以用这个技术做什么？”
And I would argue that we have really a lot of things we can still learn from biology and from nature.
我认为我们还要从生物、大自然学习很多。
So what I would like to encourage you all to do in the future is put down your nonrecyclable laptops and cell phones
我想鼓励各位在未来放下不可回收的笔记本和手机，
and go out and explore the natural world and then start asking some of your own questions. Thanks very much.
走到户外探索大自然，然后提出一些你的问题。谢谢。