Angela Belcher: Using nature to grow batteries

Prevoditelj: Ana Puhač Recezent: Mislav Ante Omazić - EFZG

I thought I'd talk a little bit about how nature makes materials.

Mislila sam kako bi bilo dobro pričati o tome kako priroda stvara materijale.

I brought along with me an abalone shell.

Donijela sam sa mnom školjku petrovo uho.

Ta školjka je biorazgradiv materijal

This abalone shell is a biocomposite material

that's 98 percent by mass calcium carbonate

koji je po masi 98 posto kalcijev karbonat,

and two percent by mass protein.

a dva posto po masi protein.

Ipak, 3.000 puta je teži

Yet, it's 3,000 times tougher than its geological counterpart.

nego njegov geološki dvojnik.

And a lot of people might use structures like abalone shells,

Puno ljudi može koristiti strukture poput petrovog uha,

kao npr. kredu.

like chalk.

I've been fascinated by how nature makes materials,

Oduševljena sam time kako priroda radi materijale,

i postoji puno nizova

and there's a lot of secrets to how they do such an exquisite job.

u načinu na koji oni rade takav fini posao.

Part of it is that these materials are macroscopic in structure,

Djelomično je to da su ti materijali

strukturno makroskopski,

ali su formirani na nanostupanjskoj razini.

but they're formed at the nano scale.

They're formed at the nano scale,

Formirani su na nanostupanjskoj razini

and they use proteins that are coded by the genetic level

i koriste proteine koji su kodirani na genetskoj razini

koji im dopuštaju gradnju tih izvrsnih struktura.

that allow them to build these really exquisite structures.

Nešto što stvarno oduševljava

So something I think is very fascinating is:

jest pitanje o tome bi li mogli dati život

What if you could give life to non-living structures,

neživim strukturama

like batteries and like solar cells?

poput baterija i solarnih ćelija?

What if they had some of the same capabilities

Što ako one imaju neke iste mogućnosti

koje ima i petrovo uho,

that an abalone shell did,

in terms of being able to build really exquisite structures

u smislu da su u stanju

izgraditi stvarno fine strukture

at room temperature and room pressure,

na sobnim temperaturama i sobnom tlaku,

using nontoxic chemicals

koristeći neotrovne kemikalije

and adding no toxic materials back into the environment?

i dodavajući neotrovne materijale natrag u okoliš?

So that's kind of the vision that I've been thinking about.

Dakle, to je vizija o kojoj sam razmišljala.

And so what if you could grow a battery in a Petri dish?

Što ako možemo uzgojiti bateriju u petrijevoj zdjelici?

Ili što ako možemo dati genetsku informaciju bateriji,

Or what if you could give genetic information to a battery

tako da ona zapravo postane bolja

so that it could actually become better as a function of time, and do so

u funkciji vremena,

i da to možemo učniti na način koji ne šteti okolišu?

in an environmentally friendly way?

I da se vratimo na petrovo uho,

And so, going back to this abalone shell,

osim što je nano-strukturirana,

besides being nanostructured, one thing that's fascinating is,

jedna stvar koja oduševljava je

when a male and female abalone get together,

da kada se mužjak i ženka spare,

they pass on the genetic information that says,

prenose genetsku informaciju

koja kaže: "Ovako se gradi izvrstan materijal.

"This is how to build an exquisite material.

Here's how to do it at room temperature and pressure,

Evo kako to napraviti na sobnoj temperaturi i tlaku,

koristeći notrovne materijale."

using nontoxic materials."

Same with diatoms, which are shown right here,

Isto je s algama kremenjašicama, koje sjaje upravo ovdje, one imaju građu poput stakla.

which are glasseous structures.

Svaki puta kada se kremenjašice množe,

Every time the diatoms replicate,

they give the genetic information that says,

daju genetički informaciju koja govori:

"Ovako se gradi staklo u oceanu

"Here's how to build glass in the ocean that's perfectly nanostructured."

koje je savršeno nano-strukturirano.

And you can do it the same, over and over again."

I to se iznova može ponavljati."

Dakle, što ako bismo mogli napraviti istu stvar

So what if you could do the same thing with a solar cell or a battery?

sa solarnim ćelijama ili baterijama?

I like to say my favorite biomaterial is my four year old.

Volim reći kako je moj najdraži biomaterijal moj četverogodišnjak.

But anyone who's ever had or knows small children knows,

Ali bilo tko tko je ikada imao, ili zna malu djecu

također zna da su ona nevjerojatno složeni organizmi.

they're incredibly complex organisms.

If you wanted to convince them to do something they don't want to do,

I ako ih želite uvjeriti

da naprave nešto što ne žele, to je jako teško.

it's very difficult.

Kada razmišljamo o budućim tehnologijama,

So when we think about future technologies,

we actually think of using bacteria and viruses --

mi zapravo razmišljamo o korištenju bakterija i virusa,

jednostavnih organizama.

simple organisms.

Can you convince them to work with a new toolbox,

Možete li njih uvjeriti da rade s novim alatima

tako da grade strukture

so they can build a structure that will be important to me?

koje će meni biti važne?

Also, when we think about future technologies,

Također, mi razmišljamo o budućim tehnologijama.

we start with the beginning of Earth.

Počevši od stvaranja Zemlje.

Napose, trebalo je milijardu godina

Basically, it took a billion years to have life on Earth.

da život dođe na Zemlju.

And very rapidly, they became multi-cellular,

I jako brzo, organizmi su postali višestanični,

mogli su se replicirati, mogli su koristiti fotosintezu

they could replicate, they could use photosynthesis

as a way of getting their energy source.

kao način dobivanja izvora energije.

But it wasn't until about 500 million years ago --

Ali sve do prije 500 milijuna godina --

tijekom geološkog razdoblja Kambrija --

during the Cambrian geologic time period --

ti organizmi u oceanu nisu počeli graditi tvrde materijale.

that organisms in the ocean started making hard materials.

Oni su prvotno bili mekane, pahuljaste građevine.

Before that, they were all soft, fluffy structures.

I tijekom tog perioda

It was during this time that there was increased calcium,

kalcij, željezo i silicij su narasli

iron and silicon in the environment,

u okolišu.

and organisms learned how to make hard materials.

Organizmi su naučili kako stvarati tvrde materijale.

So that's what I would like to be able to do,

I to je ono što bi ja željela postići --

convince biology to work with the rest of the periodic table.

uvjeriti biologiju;

da radi s ostatkom tablice periodnog sustava.

Now, if you look at biology,

Ako sada pogledate biologiju,

there's many structures like DNA, antibodies, proteins and ribosomes

postoji mnogo građevina poput DNA i antitijela

i proteina i ribosoma o kojima ste čuli

you've heard about,

koji su također nano-strukturirani.

that are nanostructured --

Dakle, priroda nam već daje

nature already gives us really exquisite structures on the nano scale.

stvrano izvrsne strukture na nano-stupnju.

What if we could harness them

Što ako bi ih mogli upregnuti

and convince them to not be an antibody that does something like HIV?

i uvjeriti ih da ne budu antitijela

koja čine nešto kao HIV?

Što ako bismo ih mogli uvjeriti

What if we could convince them to build a solar cell for us?

da grade solarne ćelije za nas?

Evo nekoliko primjera: ovo su prirodne školjke.

Here are some examples.

Natural shells, natural biological materials.

One su prirodni biološki materijal

The abalone shell here.

Ovo petrovo uho -- ako ga rastavite,

If you fracture it, you can look at the fact that it's nanostructured.

možete vidjeti činjenicu da je nano-strukturiran.

Postoje dijatomeje napravljene od SIO2

There's diatoms made out of SiO2,

and there are magnetotactic bacteria

i one su magnetotaktične bakterije

that make small, single-domain magnets used for navigation.

koje čine male, jedno domenske magnete korištene za navigaciju.

What all these have in common

Što one sve imaju zajedničko jest

is these materials are structured at the nano scale,

kako su ti materijali strukturirani nanostupanjski,

i imaju DNA redosljed

and they have a DNA sequence that codes for a protein sequence

koji kodira za protein tog slijeda,

that gives them the blueprint

koji im daje nacrt

to be able to build these really wonderful structures.

za gradnju tih stvarno predivnih struktura.

Now, going back to the abalone shell,

Da se vratimo na petrovo uho,

ono gradi svoj oklop imajući te proteine.

the abalone makes this shell by having these proteins.

These proteins are very negatively charged.

Ti proteini su jako negativno nabijeni.

They can pull calcium out of the environment,

Oni mogu izvući kalcij iz okoline,

staviti sloj kalcija i zatim karbonata, kalcija pa karbonata.

and put down a layer of calcium and then carbonate, calcium and carbonate.

Postoji kemijski redoslijed amino kiseline

It has the chemical sequences of amino acids which says,

koji kaže: "Ovako se grade strukture.

"This is how to build the structure.

Ovdje je DNA redoslijed, a ovdje je sekvenca proteina

Here's the DNA sequence, here's the protein sequence

da se to može napraviti."

in order to do it."

So an interesting idea is,

Zanimljiva ideja je, što ako bismo mogli napraviti materijal koji želimo,

what if you could take any material you wanted,

ili neki element na tablici periodnog sustava,

or any element on the periodic table,

i otkriti da korespondira DNA poretku,

and find its corresponding DNA sequence,

then code it for a corresponding protein sequence to build a structure,

i tada ga kodirati za odgovarajući slijed proteina

da se izgradi struktura, ali ne struktura petrovog uha --

but not build an abalone shell --

build something that nature has never had the opportunity to work with yet.

već nečeg sa čime se, kroz prirodu,

još nije imalo priliku raditi.

I dakle, evo periodnog sustava.

And so here's the periodic table.

I ja apsolutno obožavam periodni sustav.

I absolutely love the periodic table.

Svake godine za nadolazeću novu generaciju studenata na MIT-u,

Every year for the incoming freshman class at MIT,

ja imam tablicu periodnog sustava koja kaže:

I have a periodic table made that says,

"Welcome to MIT. Now you're in your element."

"Dobrodošli na MIT. Sada ste u svom elementu."

(Laughter)

I kad je okrenete, ima amino kiseline

And you flip it over, and it's the amino acids

with the pH at which they have different charges.

s PH vrijednosti koje imaju različite naboje.

And so I give this out to thousands of people.

Ja ih dijelim tisućama ljudi.

And I know it says MIT and this is Caltech,

I znam da na njoj piše MIT, makar je ovo Caltech,

ali ako želite, imam nešto viška.

but I have a couple extra if people want it.

Bila sam stvarno sretna

I was really fortunate to have President Obama visit my lab this year

što sam mogla ugostiti predsjednika Obamu u svom laboratoriju ove godine

na njegovom posjetu MIT-u

on his visit to MIT,

and I really wanted to give him a periodic table.

i stvarno sam mu željela dati jedan periodni sustav.

Ostala sam budna noć prije, i razgovarala sa svojim mužem:

So I stayed up at night and talked to my husband,

"Kako da dam predsjedniku Obami tablicu periodnog sustava?

"How do I give President Obama a periodic table?

What if he says, 'Oh, I already have one,'

Što ako kaže: "Oh, već imam jedan."

or, 'I've already memorized it?'"

ili: "Već sam je naučio napamet!?"

(Laughter)

I tako je on posjetio moj laboratorij

So he came to visit my lab and looked around -- it was a great visit.

i razgledao okolo -- bio je to odličan posjet.

And then afterward, I said,

Zatim sam kasnije rekla:

"Sir, I want to give you the periodic table,

"Gospodine, željela bih vam dati tablicu periodnog sustava

in case you're ever in a bind and need to calculate molecular weight."

u slučaju da ikada morate izračunavati molekularnu težinu."

(Laughter)

I mislila sam da "molekularna težina" zvuči manje štreberski

I thought "molecular weight" sounded much less nerdy than "molar mass."

od "molekularna masa".

(Laughter)

A on je pogledao

And he looked at it and said,

i rekao,

"Thank you. I'll look at it periodically."

"Hvala vam. Pogledat ću na nju periodički."

(Laughter)

(Smijeh)

(Applause)

(Pljesak)

Later in a lecture that he gave on clean energy,

I u nastavku svog predavanja o čistoj energiji,

he pulled it out and said,

on je izvukao tablicu i rekao:

"And people at MIT, they give out periodic tables." So ...

"I ljudi na MIT-u, oni dijele tablice periodnog sustava."

Dakle, ono što vam nisam rekla je

So basically what I didn't tell you

is that about 500 million years ago, the organisms started making materials,

da su prije 500 milijuna godina organizmi počeli raditi materijale,

ali im je trebalo oko 50 milijuna godina da postanu dobri u tome.

but it took them about 50 million years to get good at it --

Trebalo im je oko 50 milijuna godina

50 million years to learn how to perfect how to make that abalone shell.

da nauče kako usavršiti gradnju te školjke koju danas zovemo petrovo uho.

I to je teško prodati studentima koji rade na magisteriju.

And that's a hard sell to a graduate student:

"Imam ovaj super projekt -- traje 50 milijuna godina."

"I have this great project ... 50 million years ..."

Znači kako smo mi morali razviti način

So we had to develop a way of trying to do this more rapidly.

da napravimo to bitno brže.

And so we use a nontoxic virus called M13 bacteriophage,

Tako smo se koristili virusom koji je neotrovan

i koji se zove M13 bakteriofag

čiji je posao da zarazi bakteriju.

whose job is to infect bacteria.

Ima jednostavnu DNA strukturu

Well, it has a simple DNA structure

u koju se može uči, i na koju se može izrezati i prenijeti

that you can go in and cut and paste additional DNA sequences into it,

dodatni DNA slijedovi.

Čineči to, to dozvoljava virusu

and by doing that, it allows the virus to express random protein sequences.

da izrazi nasumične proteinske slijedove.

This is pretty easy biotechnology,

I to je prilično jednostavna biotehnologija.

and you could basically do this a billion times.

I to se praktički može učiniti milijardu puta.

So you can have a billion different viruses

I time se može dobiti milijardu različitih virusa

koji su svi genetički identični

that are all genetically identical,

but they differ from each other based on their tips,

ali se svi razlikuju jedan od drugoga po njihovim vrhovima

na određenom slijedu

on one sequence,

koji kodira za jedan protein.

that codes for one protein.

Now if you take all billion viruses, and put them in one drop of liquid,

Ako uzmete svih milijardu virusa,

i stavite ih u jednu kapljicu tekućine

you can force them to interact with anything you want

možete ih prisiliti na interakciju s biločime na periodnom sustavu elemenata.

on the periodic table.

I kroz proces selekcijske evolucije,

And through a process of selection evolution,

možete izvući jedan iz milijarde koji čini nešto što biste vi željeli,

you can pull one of a billion that does something you'd like it to do,

poput toga da izraste u bateriju ili solarnu ćeliju.

like grow a battery or a solar cell.

Praktički, virusi se ne mogu replicirati, oni trebaju matičnu stanicu.

Basically, viruses can't replicate themselves; they need a host.

Jednom kada nađete tog jednog iz miljarde,

Once you find that one out of a billion,

zarazite ga bakterijom

you infect it into a bacteria, and make millions and billions of copies

i stvarate milijune i milijardu kopija

of that particular sequence.

tog određenog slijeda.

The other thing that's beautiful about biology

Druga stvar koja je prekrasna u vezi biologije

is that biology gives you really exquisite structures

jest to da vam biologija daje stvarno izvrsne strukture

s dobro povezanim stupnjevima.

with nice link scales.

These viruses are long and skinny,

Ti su virusi dugi i mršavi

and we can get them to express the ability

i možemo ih natjerati da izraze mogućnost

to grow something like semiconductors

rasta nečega poput poluvodiča

or materials for batteries.

ili materijala za baterije.

Ovo je baterija s visokom snagom koju smo proizveli u mojem laboratoriiju.

Now, this is a high-powered battery that we grew in my lab.

We engineered a virus to pick up carbon nanotubes.

Izgradili smo virus koji ubire ugljikove nanocjevčice.

One part of the virus grabs a carbon nanotube,

Jedan dio virusa uzima ugljikovu nanocjevčicu.

the other part of the virus has a sequence

Drugi dio virusa ima slijed

koji može napraviti elektrodu za bateriju.

that can grow an electrode material for a battery,

and then it wires itself to the current collector.

I tako se virus umreži sa sakupljačem struje.

And so through a process of selection evolution,

I kroz proces selekcijske evolucije,

we went from being able to have a virus that made a crummy battery

prolazimo od virusa koji radi bijednu bateriju

preko virusa koji radi dobru bateriju

to a virus that made a good battery

to a virus that made a record-breaking, high-powered battery

do virusa koji radi rekordnu, snažnu bateriju

that's all made at room temperature, basically at the benchtop.

i to je sve učinjeno na sobnoj temperaturi, praktički na radnom stolu.

That battery went to the White House for a press conference,

Ta je baterija otišla u Bijelu Kuću na press-konferenciju.

Odnijela sam je tamo.

and I brought it here.

You can see it in this case that's lighting this LED.

Možete je vidjeti u ovoj kutiji -- dovoljno je jaka da upali LED svjetiljku.

Now if we could scale this,

Kada bismo ovo mogli dovesti do razmjera

you could actually use it to run your Prius,

da možemo koristiti taj pogon

za pokretanje vlastitog Priusa,

which is kind of my dream -- to be able to drive a virus-powered car.

što je moj san -- biti u mogućnosti voziti auto koji se pokreće virusom.

(Laughter)

Ali to je praktički --

But basically you can pull one out of a billion,

možete izvući jedan iz milijardu

and make lots of amplifications to it.

Možete napraviti puno pojačanja na njoj.

Basically, you make an amplification in the lab,

U osnovi, možete napraviti pojačanje u labosu.

Možete je natjerati da se sama nakupi

and then you get it to self-assemble into a structure like a battery.

u strukturu poput baterije.

We're able to do this also with catalysis.

To smo u mogućnosti učiniti s katalizom.

This is the example of a photocatalytic splitting of water.

Ovo je primjer

fotokatalitičkog dijeljenja vode.

And what we've been able to do is engineer a virus

Možemo izgraditi virus koji

uzima molekule koje će apsorbirati pigment

to basically take dye-absorbing molecules

i poredati ih na površinu virusa

and line them up on the surface of the virus

tako da se ponaša kao antena

so it acts as an antenna,

and you get an energy transfer across the virus.

i dobit ćete prijenos energije kroz virus.

I tada mu damo drugi gen

And then we give it a second gene to grow an inorganic material

da napravi anorganski materijal

that can be used to split water into oxygen and hydrogen,

koji se može korisititi za podijelu vode

na kisik i vodik,

that can be used for clean fuels.

koji se može korisiti kao čisto gorivo.

I brought an example of that with me today.

I ja sam donijela primjer nečeg takvog danas.

My students promised me it would work.

Moji su mi studenti obećali da će raditi.

These are virus-assembled nanowires.

Ovo su virusno-sakupljajuće nanomreže.

Kada ih obasjate svjetlom, možete vidjeti da se pjene.

When you shine light on them, you can see them bubbling.

In this case, you're seeing oxygen bubbles come out.

U ovom slučaju, vidite mjehuriće kisika kako izlaze van.

(Applause)

I pomoću kontroliranja gena,

Basically, by controlling the genes,

you can control multiple materials to improve your device performance.

možete kontrolirati mnogobrojne materijale za unapređenje izvedbe vašeg uređaja.

Zadnji primjer su bile solarne čelije.

The last example are solar cells.

Ovo isto tako možete napraviti sa solarnim čelijama.

You can also do this with solar cells.

We've been able to engineer viruses to pick up carbon nanotubes

Mi smo bili u mogućnosti izgraditi viruse

koji će sakupljarti ugljične nanocjevčice

and then grow titanium dioxide around them,

i tada stvarati titan-dioksid oko sebe --

and use it as a way of getting electrons through the device.

i korisiti to kao način dobivanja elektrona kroz uređaje.

And what we've found is through genetic engineering,

Ono što smo mi pronašli jest to da kroz genetski inžinjering

we can actually increase the efficiencies of these solar cells

mi zapravo možemo povećati

učinkovitost tih solarnih čelija

to record numbers

do rekordnih brojki

for these types of dye-sensitized systems.

za te tipove pigmentski-osjetljivih sustava.

And I brought one of those as well,

I takvu jednu sam donijela

that you can play around with outside afterward.

tako da se možete igrati s njom kasnije.

Dakle, ovo je virusno-bazirana solarna čelija.

So this is a virus-based solar cell.

Kroz evoluciju i selekciju,

Through evolution and selection,

we took it from an eight percent efficiency solar cell

mi smo je doveli od učinkovitosti od 8%

do učinkovitosti od 11%.

to an 11 percent efficiency solar cell.

So I hope that I've convinced you

Tako da se nadam kako smo vas uvjerili

that there's a lot of great, interesting things to be learned

da postoji puno izvrsnih, zanimljivih stvari za naučiti

o tome kako priroda gradi materijale --

about how nature makes materials,

and about taking it the next step,

i koje mi možemo dovesti na sljedeću razinu

to see if you can force or take advantage of how nature makes materials,

da vidimo možemo li natjerati

ili iskorisiti način na koji priroda gradi materijale,

da napravimo stvari o kojima priroda još nije ni sanjala.

to make things that nature hasn't yet dreamed of making.

Thank you.

Hvala vam.

(Applause)