Nathan Wolfe: What's left to explore?

Translator: Timothy Covell Reviewer: Morton Bast

Translator: Anders Finn Jørgensen Reviewer: Niels Justus

Recently I visited Beloit, Wisconsin.

Fornylig besøgte jeg Beloit, Wisconsin

And I was there to honor a great 20th century explorer,

Jeg var der for at ære en stor opdagelsesrejsende fra det 20'ende århundrede.

Roy Chapman Andrews.

Roy Chapman Andrews.

During his time at the American Museum of Natural History,

I hans tid, ledte the American Museum of Natural History,

Andrews led a range of expeditions to uncharted regions,

en lang række ekspeditioner til ukortlagte regioner,

like here in the Gobi Desert.

som her i Gobi ørkenen.

He was quite a figure.

Han var lidt af en type.

He was later, it's said, the basis of the Indiana Jones character.

Blev, påstås det, forbilledet for Indiana Jones figuren.

And when I was in Beloit, Wisconsin,

Og mens jeg var i Beloit, Wisconsin,

I gave a public lecture to a group of middle school students.

gav jeg en offentlig forelæsning til en gruppe skoleelever.

And I'm here to tell you,

Og jeg fortæller jeg,

if there's anything more intimidating than talking here at TED,

hvis der er noget mere skræmmende en at tale her på TED,

it'll be trying to hold the attention

vil det være at forsøge at holde opmærksomheden

of a group of a thousand 12-year-olds for a 45-minute lecture.

hos en gruppe på tusinde 12-årige gennem en 45 minutter optræden.

Don't try that one.

Prøv det ikke.

At the end of the lecture they asked a number of questions,

Efter min forelæsning stillede de en række spørgsmål,

but there was one that's really stuck with me since then.

men der var et som blev hængende i hovedet siden.

There was a young girl who stood up,

Der var en ung pige som rejste sig

and she asked the question:

og stillede et spørgsmål:

"Where should we explore?"

"Hvor henne skal vi tage på opdagelsesrejse?"

I think there's a sense that many of us have

Jeg tror at det er en følelse mange af os har

that the great age of exploration on Earth is over,

at tiderne for de store opdagelser på jorden er forbi,

that for the next generation

at den næste generation

they're going to have to go to outer space or the deepest oceans

er nødt til at tage til det ydre rum eller ned i de dybeste oceaner

in order to find something significant to explore.

for at finde noget betydningsfuldt at udforske.

But is that really the case?

Men er det virkeligt rigtigt?

Is there really nowhere significant for us to explore

Er der virkeligt ikke noget betydningsfuldt tilbage at udforske

left here on Earth?

her på Jorden?

It sort of made me think back

Det fik mig til at tænke tilbage

to one of my favorite explorers in the history of biology.

på en af mine favoritudforskere i biologiens historie

This is an explorer of the unseen world, Martinus Beijerinck.

Dette er udforskeren af den usete verden, Martinus Beijerinck.

So Beijerinck set out to discover the cause

Beijerick stod ud for at opdage årsagen

of tobacco mosaic disease.

til tobaksmosaiksygen.

What he did is he took the infected juice from tobacco plants

Hvad han gjorde var at tage inficeret saft fra tobaksplanter

and he would filter it through smaller and smaller filters.

og filtrere den gennem finere og finere filtre.

And he reached the point

Han nåede til et punkt

where he felt that there must be something out there

hvor han følte at det måtte være noget

that was smaller than the smallest forms of life that were ever known --

som var mindre end den mindste form for liv som nogensinde var kendt --

bacteria, at the time.

på den tid bakterier.

He came up with a name for his mystery agent.

Han opfandt et navn for denne mystisk årsag.

He called it the virus --

han kaldte det for virus --

Latin for "poison."

latinsk for gift.

And in uncovering viruses,

Og ved at afdække vira,

Beijerinck really opened this entirely new world for us.

åbnede Beijerick virkeligt en dør til en helt ny verden for os.

We now know that viruses make up the majority

Vi ved at vira udgår hovedparten af

of the genetic information on our planet,

den genetiske information på vores planet,

more than the genetic information

mere end den genetiske information

of all other forms of life combined.

af alle andre former for liv tilsammen.

And obviously there's been tremendous practical applications

Og det har indlysende haft en enorm praktisk anvendelighed

associated with this world --

at kende denne verden.

things like the eradication of smallpox,

Ting som udryddelsen af kopper,

the advent of a vaccine against cervical cancer,

fremkomsten af vaccine mod livmoderhalskræft,

which we now know is mostly caused by human papillomavirus.

som vi nu ved skyldes human papillomavirus.

And Beijerinck's discovery,

Beijerincks opdagelse

this was not something that occurred 500 years ago.

var ikke noget som skete for 500 år siden.

It was a little over 100 years ago

Det var lidt over 100 år siden

that Beijerinck discovered viruses.

at Beijerinck opdagede vira.

So basically we had automobiles,

Så grundlæggende havde vi automobiler

but we were unaware of the forms of life

men vi var uopmærksomme på den form for liv

that make up most of the genetic information on our planet.

der indeholder den største mængde genetisk information her på vores planet.

We now have these amazing tools

Vi har nu disse utrolige redskaber

to allow us to explore the unseen world --

som muliggør udforskningen af usete verden --

things like deep sequencing,

ting som dyb sekventering,

which allow us to do much more than just skim the surface

som tillader os at gøre mere end bare skimme overfladen

and look at individual genomes from a particular species,

og kigge på de individuelle genomer fra udvalgte arter,

but to look at entire metagenomes,

men at kigge på hele metagenomer,

the communities of teeming microorganisms in, on and around us

samfund af vrimlende mikroorganismer, i, på og omkring os

and to document all of the genetic information in these species.

og dokumentere alt den genetiske information af disse arter.

We can apply these techniques

Vi kan anvende disse tekniker

to things from soil to skin and everything in between.

på ting fra jord og hud og alle ting derimellem.

In my organization we now do this on a regular basis

I min organisation er vi begyndt på regelmæssigt

to identify the causes of outbreaks

at identificere årsagerne til de sygdomsudbrud

that are unclear exactly what causes them.

hvor det er uklart hvad der forårsager dem.

And just to give you a sense of how this works,

Og for at give jer et indtryk af hvordan det er,

imagine that we took a nasal swab from every single one of you.

forstil jer at vi tager en vatpind i næsen på jer alle sammen.

And this is something we commonly do

og det er noget vi normalt gør

to look for respiratory viruses like influenza.

for at kigge efter åndedrætsvirus som influenza.

The first thing we would see

Den første ting vi vil se er

is a tremendous amount of genetic information.

en kolossal mængde af genetisk information.

And if we started looking into that genetic information,

Og hvis vi starter med at kigge på denne genetiske information,

we'd see a number of usual suspects out there --

vil vi se et antal af de sædvanlige mistænkte --

of course, a lot of human genetic information,

selvfølgeligt, en masse human genetisk information,

but also bacterial and viral information,

men også bakteriel og viral information,

mostly from things that are completely harmless within your nose.

mest fra ting som er fuldstændigt harmløse i vores næse.

But we'd also see something very, very surprising.

Men vi ser også noget meget, meget overraskende.

As we started to look at this information,

Da vi startede med at kigge på denne information,

we would see that about 20 percent of the genetic information in your nose

fandt vi at omkring 20 procent af den genetiske information i vores næser

doesn't match anything that we've ever seen before --

ikke kommer fra noget vi nogensinde har set før --

no plant, animal, fungus, virus or bacteria.

ingen plante, dyr, svamp, virus eller bakterie.

Basically we have no clue what this is.

Grundlæggende har vi ingen ide om hvad det er.

And for the small group of us who actually study this kind of data,

Og i den lille gruppe af os som faktisk studere denne form for data

a few of us have actually begun to call this information

er nogle få af os er faktisk begyndt at kalde denne information

biological dark matter.

for biologisk mørkt stof.

We know it's not anything that we've seen before;

Vi ved at det er noget vi aldrig har set før;

it's sort of the equivalent of an uncharted continent

det er en slags pedant til det ukortlagte kontinent

right within our own genetic information.

lige inde i vores egen krop.

And there's a lot of it.

og der er masser af det.

If you think 20 percent of genetic information in your nose is a lot

Hvis du syntes at 20 procent genetisk information i din næse er meget

of biological dark matter,

biologisk mørkt stof,

if we looked at your gut,

hvis vi kigger i dine tarme

up to 40 or 50 percent of that information is biological dark matter.

op til 40 til 50 procent af den information er biologisk mørkt stof.

And even in the relatively sterile blood,

Og selv i det relativt sterile blod,

around one to two percent of this information is dark matter --

omkring en til to procent af den genetiske information er mørkt stof --

can't be classified, can't be typed or matched with anything we've seen before.

kan ikke blive klassificeret, typificeret eller matched med noget vi har set før.

At first we thought that perhaps this was artifact.

Til at starte med troede vi at det var en fejl.

These deep sequencing tools are relatively new.

Disse dybe sekventeringsværktøjer er forholdsvis nye.

But as they become more and more accurate,

Men efterhånden som de bliver mere og mere nøjagtige,

we've determined that this information is a form of life,

er vi blevet overbevidst om at denne information er en form for liv,

or at least some of it is a form of life.

eller i det mindste noget af det er en form for liv.

And while the hypotheses for explaining the existence of biological dark matter

Og mens denne hypotese for forklaring af eksistensen af biologisk mørk stof

are really only in their infancy,

virkeligt er i sin barndom,

there's a very, very exciting possibility that exists:

findes der en meget, meget ophidsende mulighed:

that buried in this life, in this genetic information,

At begravet i dette liv, i disse genetiske informationer

are signatures of as of yet unidentified life.

er vidnesbyrd om en endnu ikke identificeret form for liv.

That as we explore these strings of A's, T's, C's and G's,

At mens vi udforsker disse strenge af A'er, T'er, C'er og G'er ,

we may uncover a completely new class of life

kan vi afdække en fuldstændig ny klasse af liv

that, like Beijerinck, will fundamentally change

som, ligesom Beijerinck, fuldstændigt vil ændre

the way that we think about the nature of biology.

måden vi i dag forestiller os biologiens natur.

That perhaps will allow us to identify the cause of a cancer that afflicts us

Muligvis vil det tillade os at identificere årsagerne til kræft som plager os

or identify the source of an outbreak that we aren't familiar with

eller identificere årsagen til sygdomsudbrud som vi ikke er bekendt med

or perhaps create a new tool in molecular biology.

eller måske skabe et nyt værktøj i molekylærbiologi.

I'm pleased to announce that,

Jeg stolt over at kunne fortælle at

along with colleagues at Stanford and Caltech and UCSF,

sammen med kollegaer fra Standford, Caltech og UCSF,

we're currently starting an initiative

er vi i gang med at starte et initiativ

to explore biological dark matter for the existence of new forms of life.

til at udforske biologisk mørk stof for eksistens af en ny form for liv.

A little over a hundred years ago,

Lidt over hundrede år siden var

people were unaware of viruses,

folk uvidende om virus,

the forms of life that make up most of the genetic information on our planet.

den form for liv som indeholder mest af den genetiske information på vores planet.

A hundred years from now, people may marvel

om hundrede år fra nu af vil folk måske undres over

that we were perhaps completely unaware of a new class of life

at vi måske er fuldstændigt uvidende om en ny klasse af liv

that literally was right under our noses.

som findes bogstaveligt talt lige under vores næser.

It's true, we may have charted all the continents on the planet

Det er sandt at vi har kortlagt alle kontinenterne på planeten

and we may have discovered all the mammals that are out there,

og vi har opdaget alle pattedyr derude,

but that doesn't mean that there's nothing left to explore on Earth.

men det betyder ikke at der ikke er mere tilbage at udforske på Jorden.

Beijerinck and his kind

Beijerinck og hans slags

provide an important lesson for the next generation of explorers --

gav os en vigtig lærdom for den næste generation af udforskere --

people like that young girl from Beloit, Wisconsin.

folk som den unge pige fra Beloit, Wisconsin.

And I think if we phrase that lesson, it's something like this:

Og jeg tror at hvis vi ska lave et slogan ud af denne lærdom, vil det lyde som:

Don't assume that what we currently think is out there is the full story.

Forvent ikke at hvad vi nu tror er den fulde historie.

Go after the dark matter in whatever field you choose to explore.

Gå efter det mørke stof i et hvilket som helst område du vælger at udforske.

There are unknowns all around us

Der er ubekendte omkring os

and they're just waiting to be discovered.

og de venter kun på at blive opdaget.

Thank you.

Mange tak.

(Applause)

(Bifald)