Ellen Jorgensen: Biohacking -- you can do it, too

186,763 views ・ 2013-01-15

TED


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

00:00
Translator: Joseph Geni Reviewer: Morton Bast
0
0
7000
00:15
It's a great time to be a molecular biologist. (Laughter)
1
15816
3438
00:19
Reading and writing DNA code is getting easier
2
19254
2882
00:22
and cheaper.
3
22136
1532
00:23
By the end of this year, we'll be able to sequence
4
23668
2170
00:25
the three million bits of information
5
25838
1704
00:27
in your genome in less than a day
6
27542
2970
00:30
and for less than 1,000 euros.
7
30512
2410
00:32
Biotech is probably the most powerful
8
32922
2830
00:35
and the fastest-growing technology sector.
9
35752
3024
00:38
It has the power, potentially,
10
38776
3302
00:42
to replace our fossil fuels,
11
42078
2217
00:44
to revolutionize medicine,
12
44295
2217
00:46
and to touch every aspect of our daily lives.
13
46512
4211
00:50
So who gets to do it?
14
50723
3832
00:54
I think we'd all be pretty comfortable with
15
54555
2495
00:57
this guy doing it.
16
57050
3272
01:00
But what about
17
60322
1915
01:02
that guy? (Laughter)
18
62237
2872
01:05
(Laughter)
19
65109
1870
01:06
In 2009, I first heard about DIYbio.
20
66979
5474
01:12
It's a movement that -- it advocates making biotechnology
21
72453
4113
01:16
accessible to everyone,
22
76566
2081
01:18
not just scientists and people in government labs.
23
78647
3639
01:22
The idea is that if you open up the science
24
82286
3540
01:25
and you allow diverse groups to participate,
25
85826
2803
01:28
it could really stimulate innovation.
26
88629
1693
01:30
Putting technology in the hands of the end user
27
90322
2806
01:33
is usually a good idea because they've got the best idea
28
93128
3189
01:36
of what their needs are.
29
96317
2103
01:38
And here's this really sophisticated technology
30
98420
3137
01:41
coming down the road, all these associated
31
101557
2744
01:44
social, moral, ethical questions,
32
104301
2697
01:46
and we scientists are just lousy at explaining to the public
33
106998
3391
01:50
just exactly what it is we're doing in those labs.
34
110389
3882
01:54
So wouldn't it be nice
35
114271
2728
01:56
if there was a place in your local neighborhood
36
116999
2436
01:59
where you could go and learn about this stuff,
37
119435
2580
02:02
do it hands-on?
38
122015
2323
02:04
I thought so.
39
124338
1515
02:05
So, three years ago, I got together
40
125853
1880
02:07
with some friends of mine who had similar aspirations
41
127733
3537
02:11
and we founded Genspace.
42
131270
2135
02:13
It's a nonprofit, a community biotech lab
43
133405
3456
02:16
in Brooklyn, New York,
44
136861
1354
02:18
and the idea was people could come,
45
138215
1769
02:19
they could take classes and putter around in the lab
46
139984
3973
02:23
in a very open, friendly atmosphere.
47
143957
4112
02:28
None of my previous experience prepared me
48
148069
2641
02:30
for what came next. Can you guess?
49
150710
3345
02:34
The press started calling us.
50
154055
2728
02:36
And the more we talked about how great it was to increase
51
156783
3118
02:39
science literacy, the more they wanted to talk
52
159901
2672
02:42
about us creating the next Frankenstein,
53
162573
3128
02:45
and as a result, for the next six months,
54
165701
3005
02:48
when you Googled my name,
55
168706
1777
02:50
instead of getting my scientific papers, you got this.
56
170483
4053
02:54
["Am I a biohazard?"]
57
174536
1578
02:56
(Laughter)
58
176114
2133
02:58
It was pretty depressing.
59
178247
1791
03:00
The only thing that got us through that period
60
180038
2960
03:02
was that we knew that all over the world,
61
182998
1861
03:04
there were other people that were trying to do
62
184859
1586
03:06
the same thing that we were.
63
186445
1936
03:08
They were opening biohacker spaces, and some of them
64
188381
2504
03:10
were facing much greater challenges than we did,
65
190885
2641
03:13
more regulations, less resources.
66
193526
4117
03:17
But now, three years later, here's where we stand.
67
197643
4199
03:21
It's a vibrant, global community of hackerspaces,
68
201842
4418
03:26
and this is just the beginning.
69
206260
1902
03:28
These are some of the biggest ones,
70
208162
2061
03:30
and there are others opening every day.
71
210223
2064
03:32
There's one probably going to open up in Moscow,
72
212287
2871
03:35
one in South Korea,
73
215158
1299
03:36
and the cool thing is they each have their own
74
216457
2326
03:38
individual flavor
75
218783
1783
03:40
that grew out of the community they came out of.
76
220566
2324
03:42
Let me take you on a little tour.
77
222890
3139
03:46
Biohackers work alone.
78
226029
2448
03:48
We work in groups,
79
228477
2560
03:51
in big cities — (Laughter) —
80
231037
4385
03:55
and in small villages.
81
235422
2670
03:58
We reverse engineer lab equipment.
82
238092
2768
04:00
We genetically engineer bacteria.
83
240860
2536
04:03
We hack hardware,
84
243396
2227
04:05
software,
85
245623
2245
04:07
wetware,
86
247868
2424
04:10
and, of course, the code of life.
87
250292
2936
04:13
We like to build things.
88
253228
2935
04:16
Then we like to take things apart.
89
256163
6387
04:22
We make things grow.
90
262550
2116
04:24
We make things glow.
91
264666
1802
04:26
And we make cells dance.
92
266468
3967
04:30
The spirit of these labs, it's open, it's positive,
93
270435
3791
04:34
but, you know, sometimes when people think of us,
94
274226
2441
04:36
the first thing that comes to mind is bio-safety,
95
276667
4027
04:40
bio-security, all the dark side stuff.
96
280694
3077
04:43
I'm not going to minimize those concerns.
97
283771
2608
04:46
Any powerful technology is inherently dual use,
98
286379
3797
04:50
and, you know, you get something like
99
290176
1217
04:51
synthetic biology, nanobiotechnology,
100
291393
3850
04:55
it really compels you, you have to look at both
101
295243
2624
04:57
the amateur groups but also the professional groups,
102
297867
3413
05:01
because they have better infrastructure,
103
301280
2451
05:03
they have better facilities,
104
303731
1548
05:05
and they have access to pathogens.
105
305279
2499
05:07
So the United Nations did just that, and they recently
106
307778
3280
05:11
issued a report on this whole area,
107
311058
2608
05:13
and what they concluded was the power of this technology
108
313666
3072
05:16
for positive was much greater than the risk for negative,
109
316738
3852
05:20
and they even looked specifically at the DIYbio community,
110
320590
3529
05:24
and they noted, not surprisingly, that the press
111
324119
3545
05:27
had a tendency to consistently overestimate our capabilities
112
327664
4024
05:31
and underestimate our ethics.
113
331688
2535
05:34
As a matter of fact, DIY people from all over the world,
114
334223
3529
05:37
America, Europe, got together last year,
115
337752
2730
05:40
and we hammered out a common code of ethics.
116
340482
2549
05:43
That's a lot more than conventional science has done.
117
343031
3360
05:46
Now, we follow state and local regulations.
118
346391
3648
05:50
We dispose of our waste properly, we follow
119
350039
1996
05:52
safety procedures, we don't work with pathogens.
120
352035
3341
05:55
You know, if you're working with a pathogen,
121
355376
2703
05:58
you're not part of the biohacker community,
122
358079
2544
06:00
you're part of the bioterrorist community, I'm sorry.
123
360623
3153
06:03
And sometimes people ask me,
124
363776
1923
06:05
"Well, what about an accident?"
125
365699
1887
06:07
Well, working with the safe organisms that we normally
126
367586
3558
06:11
work with, the chance of an accident happening
127
371144
3359
06:14
with somebody accidentally creating, like,
128
374503
2328
06:16
some sort of superbug,
129
376831
1646
06:18
that's literally about as probable as a snowstorm
130
378477
4250
06:22
in the middle of the Sahara Desert.
131
382727
2072
06:24
Now, it could happen,
132
384799
1354
06:26
but I'm not going to plan my life around it.
133
386153
4156
06:30
I've actually chosen to take a different kind of risk.
134
390309
2930
06:33
I signed up for something called the Personal Genome Project.
135
393239
3112
06:36
It's a study at Harvard where, at the end of the study,
136
396351
2472
06:38
they're going to take my entire genomic sequence,
137
398823
2768
06:41
all of my medical information, and my identity,
138
401591
3672
06:45
and they're going to post it online for everyone to see.
139
405263
4142
06:49
There were a lot of risks involved that they talked about
140
409405
2930
06:52
during the informed consent portion.
141
412335
1776
06:54
The one I liked the best is,
142
414111
1883
06:55
someone could download my sequence, go back to the lab,
143
415994
3845
06:59
synthesize some fake Ellen DNA,
144
419839
2294
07:02
and plant it at a crime scene. (Laughter)
145
422133
4074
07:06
But like DIYbio, the positive outcomes and
146
426207
4530
07:10
the potential for good for a study like that
147
430737
3146
07:13
far outweighs the risk.
148
433883
2052
07:15
Now, you might be asking yourself,
149
435935
2401
07:18
"Well, you know, what would I do in a biolab?"
150
438336
3437
07:21
Well, it wasn't that long ago we were asking, "Well,
151
441773
3329
07:25
what would anyone do with a personal computer?"
152
445102
3065
07:28
So this stuff is just beginning.
153
448167
1964
07:30
We're only seeing just the tip of the DNA iceberg.
154
450131
3876
07:34
Let me show you what you could do right now.
155
454007
3085
07:37
A biohacker in Germany, a journalist, wanted to know
156
457092
3835
07:40
whose dog was leaving little presents on his street?
157
460927
3234
07:44
(Laughter) (Applause)
158
464161
2910
07:47
Yep, you guessed it. He threw tennis balls
159
467071
2706
07:49
to all the neighborhood dogs, analyzed the saliva,
160
469777
3262
07:53
identified the dog, and confronted the dog owner.
161
473039
3894
07:56
(Laughter) (Applause)
162
476933
6276
08:03
I discovered an invasive species in my own backyard.
163
483209
3304
08:06
Looked like a ladybug, right?
164
486513
1940
08:08
It actually is a Japanese beetle.
165
488453
2048
08:10
And the same kind of technology --
166
490501
1911
08:12
it's called DNA barcoding, it's really cool --
167
492412
2084
08:14
You can use it to check if your caviar is really beluga,
168
494496
4866
08:19
if that sushi is really tuna, or if that goat cheese
169
499362
3233
08:22
that you paid so much for is really goat's.
170
502595
3414
08:26
In a biohacker space, you can analyze your genome
171
506009
3901
08:29
for mutations.
172
509910
1292
08:31
You can analyze your breakfast cereal for GMO's,
173
511202
3224
08:34
and you can explore your ancestry.
174
514426
2918
08:37
You can send weather balloons up into the stratosphere,
175
517344
2357
08:39
collect microbes, see what's up there.
176
519701
3622
08:43
You can make a biocensor out of yeast
177
523323
2431
08:45
to detect pollutants in water.
178
525754
2187
08:47
You can make some sort of a biofuel cell.
179
527941
3632
08:51
You can do a lot of things.
180
531573
2293
08:53
You can also do an art science project. Some of these
181
533866
3390
08:57
are really spectacular, and they look at social,
182
537256
3641
09:00
ecological problems from a completely different perspective.
183
540897
2686
09:03
It's really cool.
184
543583
1562
09:05
Some people ask me, well, why am I involved?
185
545145
3018
09:08
I could have a perfectly good career in mainstream science.
186
548163
4095
09:12
The thing is, there's something in these labs
187
552258
2528
09:14
that they have to offer society that you can't find
188
554786
2659
09:17
anywhere else.
189
557445
1967
09:19
There's something sacred about a space where
190
559412
2678
09:22
you can work on a project, and you don't have to justify
191
562090
2512
09:24
to anyone that it's going to make a lot of money,
192
564602
2874
09:27
that it's going to save mankind, or even that it's feasible.
193
567476
3255
09:30
It just has to follow safety guidelines.
194
570731
2927
09:33
If you had spaces like this all over the world,
195
573658
2856
09:36
it could really change the perception
196
576514
2232
09:38
of who's allowed to do biotech.
197
578746
2532
09:41
It's spaces like these that spawned personal computing.
198
581278
3692
09:44
Why not personal biotech?
199
584970
2416
09:47
If everyone in this room got involved,
200
587386
2377
09:49
who knows what we could do?
201
589763
1748
09:51
This is such a new area, and as we say back in Brooklyn,
202
591511
3760
09:55
you ain't seen nothin' yet. (Laughter)
203
595271
3280
09:58
(Applause)
204
598551
3970
About this website

This site will introduce you to YouTube videos that are useful for learning English. You will see English lessons taught by top-notch teachers from around the world. Double-click on the English subtitles displayed on each video page to play the video from there. The subtitles scroll in sync with the video playback. If you have any comments or requests, please contact us using this contact form.

https://forms.gle/WvT1wiN1qDtmnspy7