Nathan Wolfe: What's left to explore?

Translator: Timothy Covell Reviewer: Morton Bast

Translator: Jana Tabačková Reviewer: Tomáš Paulech

Recently I visited Beloit, Wisconsin.

Nedávno som bol v meste Beloit vo Wisconsine.

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

Šiel som si tam uctiť veľkého bádateľa 20. storočia.

Roy Chapman Andrews.

Roya Chapmana Andrewsa.

During his time at the American Museum of Natural History,

Počas pôsobenia v Americkom prírodovednom múzeu

Andrews led a range of expeditions to uncharted regions,

viedol Andrews mnoho expedícií do neprebádaných oblastí,

like here in the Gobi Desert.

napríklad do púšte Gobi.

He was quite a figure.

Bol pomerne známy.

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

Hovorí sa, že sa stal predlohou pre postavu Indianu Jonesa.

And when I was in Beloit, Wisconsin,

A počas pobytu v Beloite

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

som prednášal na druhom stupni základnej školy.

And I'm here to tell you,

A poviem vám,

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

ak sa niekde rozpráva ťažšie než na TEDe,

it'll be trying to hold the attention

určite to bude situácia keď sa snažíte udržať pozornosť

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

skupiny tisíc dvanásťročných počas 45 minútovej prednášky.

Don't try that one.

Ani to neskúšajte.

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

Po prednáške mi položili množstvo otázok,

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

ale v pamäti mi obzvlášť utkvela jedna z nich.

There was a young girl who stood up,

Jedno dievčatko sa postavilo

and she asked the question:

a spýtalo sa:

"Where should we explore?"

"Kde by sme mali ďalej bádať?"

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

Podľa mňa si veľa ľudí myslí,

that the great age of exploration on Earth is over,

že obdobie veľkých objavov na Zemi skončilo

that for the next generation

a že budúce generácie

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

budú musieť ísť až do vesmíru alebo hlbín oceánov,

in order to find something significant to explore.

aby našli niečo hodné preskúmania.

But is that really the case?

Je to však naozaj tak?

Is there really nowhere significant for us to explore

Naozaj tu na Zemi už nenájdeme

left here on Earth?

nič hodné objavovania?

It sort of made me think back

Spomenul som si

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

na jedného z mojich obľúbených bádateľov v oblasti biológie.

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

Na bádateľa v neviditeľnom mikrosvete, Martinusa Beijerincka.

So Beijerinck set out to discover the cause

Beijerinck si zaumienil, že objaví príčinu

of tobacco mosaic disease.

mozaikovej choroby tabaku.

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

Odobral teda výťažok z nakazeného tabaku

and he would filter it through smaller and smaller filters.

a filtroval ich cez čoraz hustejšie filtre.

And he reached the point

Nakoniec dospel do bodu,

where he felt that there must be something out there

keď si uvedomil, že musí existovať niečo menšie

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

než najmenšie z najmenších v tom čase známych organizmov -

bacteria, at the time.

baktérií.

He came up with a name for his mystery agent.

Pre tajomného pôvodcu choroby vymyslel aj meno.

He called it the virus --

Nazval ho vírus -

Latin for "poison."

z latinského slova pre jed.

And in uncovering viruses,

A objavením vírusov

Beijerinck really opened this entirely new world for us.

Beijerinck otvoril bránu do nového sveta.

We now know that viruses make up the majority

Dnes vieme, že vírusy predstavujú väčšinu

of the genetic information on our planet,

genetickej informácie na Zemi,

more than the genetic information

čo je viac než genetické informácie

of all other forms of life combined.

všetkých ostatných organizmov dokopy.

And obviously there's been tremendous practical applications

Zjavne sa tu otvára široké praktické využitie

associated with this world --

spojené s novým svetom --

things like the eradication of smallpox,

napríklad vyhubenie kiahní,

the advent of a vaccine against cervical cancer,

objavenie očkovania proti rakovine krčka maternice,

which we now know is mostly caused by human papillomavirus.

ktorú, ako dnes vieme, spôsobuje ľudský papillomavírus.

And Beijerinck's discovery,

Beiherinckov objav

this was not something that occurred 500 years ago.

sa neuskutočnil pred 500 rokmi.

It was a little over 100 years ago

Uplynulo len niečo vyše 100 rokov,

that Beijerinck discovered viruses.

odkedy vírusy objavil.

So basically we had automobiles,

Ľudia už mali automobily,

but we were unaware of the forms of life

ale nevedeli o formách života,

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

ktoré predstavujú väčšinu genetickej informácie na našej planéte.

We now have these amazing tools

Máme nové úžasné nástroje

to allow us to explore the unseen world --

na objavovanie neviditeľného sveta -

things like deep sequencing,

veci ako sekvenovanie DNA

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

nám umožňujú vidieť viac než to, čo je na povrchu,

and look at individual genomes from a particular species,

viac než individuálne genómy jednotlivých druhov,

but to look at entire metagenomes,

ale môžeme vidieť celé metagenómy,

the communities of teeming microorganisms in, on and around us

súbory hemžiacich sa mikroorganizmov v nás, na nás a okolo nás

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

a dokumentovať ich genetickú informáciu.

We can apply these techniques

Techniky možno aplikovať

to things from soil to skin and everything in between.

na všetko od pokožky po pôdu.

In my organization we now do this on a regular basis

V mojej organizácii to robíme pravidelne,

to identify the causes of outbreaks

aby sme zistili, čo spôsobuje nákazu

that are unclear exactly what causes them.

o ktorej príčinách ešte nič nevieme.

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

Ak chcete mať predstavu, ako to funguje,

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

predstavte si, že sme každému z vás odobrali výter z nosa.

And this is something we commonly do

Robíme to bežne

to look for respiratory viruses like influenza.

a hľadáme vírusy postihujúce dýchacie cesty ako chrípkový vírus.

The first thing we would see

Najprv by sme videli

is a tremendous amount of genetic information.

obrovské množstvo genetickej informácie.

And if we started looking into that genetic information,

Keby sme ju začali skúmať,

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

videli by sme veľa zvyčajných podozrivých -

of course, a lot of human genetic information,

samozrejme, množstvo ľudskej genetickej informácie,

but also bacterial and viral information,

ale tiež bakteriálnu a virálnu informáciu,

mostly from things that are completely harmless within your nose.

väčšinou z neškodných organizmov.

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

Ale videli by sme aj niečo mimoriadne prekvapivé.

As we started to look at this information,

Keby sme to začali skúmať,

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

zistili by sme, že asi 20 percent genetickej informácie v nose

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

sa nezhoduje s ničím, čo sme dosiaľ videli -

no plant, animal, fungus, virus or bacteria.

so žiadnou rastlinou, zvieraťom, hubou, vírusom či baktériou.

Basically we have no clue what this is.

Nemáme ani potuchy, čo to je.

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

A niektorí z nás, čo skúmame takéto dáta,

a few of us have actually begun to call this information

sme začali túto informáciu volať

biological dark matter.

biologickou tmavou hmotou.

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

Nepodobá sa to na nič, s čím sme sa doteraz stretli,

it's sort of the equivalent of an uncharted continent

je to ako nezmapovaný kontinet

right within our own genetic information.

uprostred našej genetickej informácie.

And there's a lot of it.

A je toho veľa.

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

Ak je podľa vás 20 % genetickej informácie v nose dosť

of biological dark matter,

biologickej tmavej hmoty,

if we looked at your gut,

pozrite sa na črevá

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

tam je tmavej hmoty až okolo 40 - 50 %.

And even in the relatively sterile blood,

A v relatívne sterilnej krvi

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

tvorí tmavá hmota okolo 1 až 2 % genetickej informácie.

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

Nedokážeme ju klasifikovať ani porovnať s ničím, čo poznáme.

At first we thought that perhaps this was artifact.

Najprv sme mysleli, že je to umelé.

These deep sequencing tools are relatively new.

Nástroje sekvenovania DNA sú relatívne nové.

But as they become more and more accurate,

Ale, keď sa stali presnejšími,

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

zistili sme, že táto informácia je forma života,

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

aspoň časť z nej.

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

Zatiaľ, čo hypotézy o biologickej tmavej hmote

are really only in their infancy,

sú len v plienkach,

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

je tu veľmi vzrušujúca možnosť,

that buried in this life, in this genetic information,

že v tejto genetickej informácii sa skrývajú

are signatures of as of yet unidentified life.

náznaky ešte neidentifikovanej formy života.

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

Pri skúmaní nukleotidových sekvencií A, T, C, G...

we may uncover a completely new class of life

možno objavíme úplne novú formu života

that, like Beijerinck, will fundamentally change

a ako Beijerinck zásadne zmeníme

the way that we think about the nature of biology.

spôsob zmýšľania o biológii.

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

Možno nám to pomôže zistiť príčinu rakoviny,

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

alebo identifikujeme príčinu nákazy, o ktorej ešte nevieme

or perhaps create a new tool in molecular biology.

alebo vyvinieme nové nástroje v oblasti molekulárnej biológie.

I'm pleased to announce that,

S radosťou vám oznamujem,

along with colleagues at Stanford and Caltech and UCSF,

že spolu s kolegami v Standforde, Caltechu a Univerzity v San Franciscu

we're currently starting an initiative

spúšťame iniciatívu

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

výskumu biologickej tmavej hmoty s cieľom objaviť nové formy života.

A little over a hundred years ago,

Pred niečo viac než 100 rokmi

people were unaware of viruses,

ľudia nevedeli nič o vírusoch,

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

ktoré predstavujú väčšinu genetickej informácie na Zemi.

A hundred years from now, people may marvel

O sto rokov bude možno ľudí udivovať,

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

že sme nevedeli nič o organizmoch,

that literally was right under our noses.

ktoré sme mali rovno pod nosom.

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

Možno sme už preskúmali všetky kontinenty

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

a poznáme všetky cicavce na Zemi,

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

ale to neznamená, že tu už nie je čo skúmať.

Beijerinck and his kind

Beijerinck a jemu podobní

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

posielajú jasný odkaz budúcej generácii bádateľov,

people like that young girl from Beloit, Wisconsin.

napríklad dievčatku z Beloitu.

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

Poučenie znie asi takto:

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

Nemyslite si, že už poznáme celý príbeh.

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

Hľadajte temnú hmotu vo vašom odbore, nech je už akýkoľvek.

There are unknowns all around us

Všade navôkol sú veci,

and they're just waiting to be discovered.

ktoré ešte len čakajú, kedy ich objavíme.

Thank you.

Ďakujem.

(Applause)

(Potlesk)