Nathan Wolfe: What's left to explore?

Translator: Timothy Covell Reviewer: Morton Bast

Prevoditelj: Suzana Baric Recezent: Tilen Pigac - EFZG

Recently I visited Beloit, Wisconsin.

Nedavno sam posjetio Beloit, u Wisconsinu.

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

Bio sam ondje kako bih odao čast jednom velikom istraživaču 20. stoljeća,

Roy Chapman Andrews.

Royu Chapmanu Andrewsu.

During his time at the American Museum of Natural History,

Kada je radio za Američki prirodoslovni muzej,

Andrews led a range of expeditions to uncharted regions,

Andrews je vodio niz ekspedicija u regije koje još nisu bile ucrtane u karte,

like here in the Gobi Desert.

poput pustinje Gobi.

He was quite a figure.

Bio je dosta važna ličnost.

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

Kasnije je, navodno, bio nadahnuće za lik Indiane Jonesa.

And when I was in Beloit, Wisconsin,

Kada sam bio u Beloitu, u Wisconsinu,

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

održao sam javno predavanje grupi srednjoškolaca.

And I'm here to tell you,

A ovdje sam da bih vam rekao,

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

ako postoji išta što je više zastrašujuće od držanja govora na TED-u,

it'll be trying to hold the attention

to je pokušavanje zadržavanja pažnje

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

grupe od tisuću 12-ogodišnjaka na predavanju od 45 minuta.

Don't try that one.

Nemojte to pokušavati.

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

Na kraju predavanja pitali su brojna pitanja,

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

ali jedno od njih mi se zbilja urezalo u pamćenje.

There was a young girl who stood up,

Jedna mlada djevojka je ustala,

and she asked the question:

i postavila je pitanje:

"Where should we explore?"

"Što bismo trebali istraživati?"

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

Mislim da mnogi od nas misle

that the great age of exploration on Earth is over,

da je veliko doba istraživanja Zemlje gotovo,

that for the next generation

da će sljedeće generacije

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

morati otići u svemir ili najdublje oceane

in order to find something significant to explore.

kako bi pronašli nešto značajno za istraživanje.

But is that really the case?

Ali je li to uistinu tako?

Is there really nowhere significant for us to explore

Nije li zbilja ništa značajno što bismo mi istražili

left here on Earth?

preostalo ovdje na Zemlji?

It sort of made me think back

To me natjeralo da se prisjetim

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

jednog od mojih omiljenih istraživača povijesti biologije.

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

To je istraživač nevidljivog svijeta, Martinus Beijerinck.

So Beijerinck set out to discover the cause

Dakle, Beijerinck je krenuo otkriti uzrok

of tobacco mosaic disease.

bolesti mozaika duhana.

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

Uzeo je zaraženi sok iz biljaka duhana

and he would filter it through smaller and smaller filters.

i filtrirao ga kroz sve manje i manje filtere.

And he reached the point

I došao je do točke

where he felt that there must be something out there

gdje je pomislio da mora postojati nešto

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

što je manje od najmanjih oblika života za koje se ikad znalo --

bacteria, at the time.

bakterija, u to vrijeme.

He came up with a name for his mystery agent.

Izmislio je ime za tog tajnovitog uzročnika.

He called it the virus --

Nazvao ga je virusom --

Latin for "poison."

latinski za "otrov".

And in uncovering viruses,

I otkrivanjem virusa,

Beijerinck really opened this entirely new world for us.

Beijerinck je otvorio vrata ovog nama potpuno novog svijeta.

We now know that viruses make up the majority

Sada znamo da virusi sačinjavaju većinu

of the genetic information on our planet,

genetskih informacija na našem planetu,

more than the genetic information

više od genetskih informacija

of all other forms of life combined.

svih drugih oblika života ukupno.

And obviously there's been tremendous practical applications

I očito postoje važne praktične primjene

associated with this world --

povezane s ovim svijetom --

things like the eradication of smallpox,

stvari poput istrebljenja malih boginja,

the advent of a vaccine against cervical cancer,

pojava cjepiva protiv raka grlića maternice,

which we now know is mostly caused by human papillomavirus.

za koji znamo da ga najčešće prouzročuje humani papiloma virus.

And Beijerinck's discovery,

A Beijerinckovo otkriće,

this was not something that occurred 500 years ago.

to nije nešto što se dogodilo prije 500 godina.

It was a little over 100 years ago

Tek prije nešto više od stotinu godinu

that Beijerinck discovered viruses.

Beijerinck je otkrio viruse.

So basically we had automobiles,

Dakle, u osnovi smo imali automobile,

but we were unaware of the forms of life

ali nismo bili svjesni oblika života

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

koji čine većinu genetskih informacija na našem planetu.

We now have these amazing tools

Sada imamo te čudesne alate

to allow us to explore the unseen world --

koji nam dopuštaju da istražimo taj nevidljivi svijet --

things like deep sequencing,

stvari poput dubokog sekvenciranja

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

koje nam dopušta da učinimo mnogo više od pregledavanja površine

and look at individual genomes from a particular species,

i gledanja pojedinačnih genoma određenih vrsta,

but to look at entire metagenomes,

već da gledamo cijele metagenome,

the communities of teeming microorganisms in, on and around us

zajednice mnogobrojnih mikroorganizama u nama, na nama i oko nas

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

i da dokumentiramo sve genetske informacije u tim vrstama.

We can apply these techniques

Možemo primijeniti te tehnike

to things from soil to skin and everything in between.

na sve od zemlje do kože i sve između toga.

In my organization we now do this on a regular basis

U mojoj organizaciji redovito

to identify the causes of outbreaks

identificiramo uzroke izbijanja bolesti

that are unclear exactly what causes them.

za koje je nejasno što ih točno uzrokuje.

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

I samo da biste shvatili kako to funkcionira,

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

zamislite da smo uzeli nazalni bris svakome od vas.

And this is something we commonly do

A to je nešto što obično radimo

to look for respiratory viruses like influenza.

da bismo našli viruse dišnog sustava kao što je gripa.

The first thing we would see

Prva stvar koju bismo vidjeli

is a tremendous amount of genetic information.

je ogromna količina genetskih informacija.

And if we started looking into that genetic information,

A kada bismo počeli pregledavati te genetske informacije,

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

vidjeli bismo niz uobičajenih osumnjičenika ondje --

of course, a lot of human genetic information,

naravno, mnogo ljudskih genetskih informacija,

but also bacterial and viral information,

ali i bakterijske i virusne informacije,

mostly from things that are completely harmless within your nose.

uglavnom iz potpuno bezopasnih stvari koje su unutar vašeg nosa.

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

Ali vidjeli bismo i nešto jako, jako iznenađujuće.

As we started to look at this information,

Kada bismo počeli proučavati te informacije,

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

vidjeli bismo da oko 20% genetskih informacija u vašem nosu

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

ne odgovara ničemu što smo ikad prije vidjeli --

no plant, animal, fungus, virus or bacteria.

nijednoj biljci, gljivi, virusu ili bakteriji.

Basically we have no clue what this is.

U biti nemamo pojma što je to.

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

A mala grupa nas koji zapravo proučavamo te vrste podataka,

a few of us have actually begun to call this information

neki od nas su zapravo počeli zvati te informacije

biological dark matter.

biološkom tamnom tvari.

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

Znamo da ništa takvo nismo prije vidjeli;

it's sort of the equivalent of an uncharted continent

to je u neku ruku ekvivalent kontinentu koji nije ucrtan u kartu,

right within our own genetic information.

koji se nalazi upravo među našim genetskim informacijama.

And there's a lot of it.

A ima ih mnogo.

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

Ako mislite da je 20% genetskog materijala u vašem nosu mnogo

of biological dark matter,

biološke tamne tvari,

if we looked at your gut,

kada bismo pogledali u vaša crijeva,

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

do 40 ili 50% tih informacija je biološka tamna tvar.

And even in the relatively sterile blood,

Čak i u relativno sterilnoj krvi,

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

oko 1 do 2% informacija je tamna tvar --

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

ne može je se klasificirati, odrediti vrsta ili povezati s bilo čim što smo ikada vidjeli.

At first we thought that perhaps this was artifact.

Najprije smo mislili da je to možda artefakt.

These deep sequencing tools are relatively new.

Ti alati dubokog sekvenciranja su relativno novi.

But as they become more and more accurate,

Ali kako postaju sve točniji,

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

utvrdili smo da su te informacije oblik života,

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

ili je barem dio njih oblik života.

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

I dok su hipoteze za objašnjenje postojanja biološke tamne tvari

are really only in their infancy,

zapravo tek u povojima,

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

postoji jedna vrlo, vrlo zanimljiva mogućnost:

that buried in this life, in this genetic information,

zakopani u ovom životu, u tim genetskim informacijama,

are signatures of as of yet unidentified life.

su znakovi još neidentificiranog života.

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

Ako istražimo ove lance A, T, C i G aminokiselina,

we may uncover a completely new class of life

mogli bismo otkriti potpuno novu vrstu života

that, like Beijerinck, will fundamentally change

koja će, poput Beijerincka, iz temelja promijeniti

the way that we think about the nature of biology.

način na koji razmišljamo o prirodi biologije.

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

Koja će nam možda omogućiti prepoznavanje uzroka raka koji nas pogađa

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

ili prepoznavanje izvora izbijanja neke bolesti koja nam je nepoznata

or perhaps create a new tool in molecular biology.

ili možda stvaranje novog alata u molekularnoj biologiji.

I'm pleased to announce that,

Drago mi je da vam mogu objaviti kako,

along with colleagues at Stanford and Caltech and UCSF,

zajedno s kolegama sa Stanforda i Caltecha i UCSF-a,

we're currently starting an initiative

trenutno započinjemo inicijativu

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

za istraživanje biološke tamne tvari za postojanjem novih oblika života.

A little over a hundred years ago,

Prije nešto više od sto godina,

people were unaware of viruses,

ljudi nisu bili svjesni virusa,

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

oblika života koji sačinjavaju većinu genetskih informacija na našem planetu.

A hundred years from now, people may marvel

Za sto godina, ljudi bi se mogli čuditi

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

tome što možda u potpunosti nismo bili svjesni nove vrste života

that literally was right under our noses.

koja nam je doslovno bila pod nosom.

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

Istina je, možda smo ucrtali u karte sve kontinente na planetu

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

i možda smo otkrili sve sisavce koji postoje,

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

no to ne znači da nije preostalo ništa za istraživanje na Zemlji.

Beijerinck and his kind

Beijerinck i njemu slični

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

daju važnu lekciju za sljedeću generaciju istraživača --

people like that young girl from Beloit, Wisconsin.

ljudi poput mlade djevojke iz Beloita u Wisconsinu.

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

Kada bismo htjeli prenijeti tu lekciju u rečenicu, zvučala bi ovako nekako:

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

Nemojte pretpostavljati da je ono što mislimo da postoji cijela priča.

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

Idite za tamnom tvari u bilo kojem polju koje odlučite istraživati.

There are unknowns all around us

Nepoznanice su svuda oko nas

and they're just waiting to be discovered.

i samo čekaju da ih se otkrije.

Thank you.

Hvala.

(Applause)

(Pljesak)