Angela Belcher: Using nature to grow batteries

Prevodilac: Predrag Djordjevic Lektor: Mateja Nenadovic

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

Mislila sam da govorim o tome kako priroda stvara materijale.

I brought along with me an abalone shell.

Donela sam jednu abalon školjku.

This abalone shell is a biocomposite material

Ona je biokompozitni materijal,

that's 98 percent by mass calcium carbonate

čija je masa sastavljena od 98 odsto kalcijum karbonata

and two percent by mass protein.

i 2 odsto proteina.

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

Pa ipak, 3000 puta je jača

od svog geološkog duplikata.

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

Mnogi ljudi mogu koristiti strukture poput abalon školjke,

like chalk.

kao što je kreda.

I've been fascinated by how nature makes materials,

Fascinirana sam načinom na koji priroda stvara materijale,

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

a postoji i mnogo tajni

u načinu na koji ona vrši takav izuzetan posao.

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

Jedan deo ovoga jeste da su ovi materijali

po strukturi makroskopski,

but they're formed at the nano scale.

međutim formirani su na nano skali.

They're formed at the nano scale,

Formirani su na nano skali

and they use proteins that are coded by the genetic level

i koriste proteine koji su šifrirani na genetskom nivou

that allow them to build these really exquisite structures.

da bi im dozvolili da izgrade ove zaista izvrsne strukture.

So something I think is very fascinating is:

Fascinira me pomisao

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

da bismo mogli da podarimo život

neživim strukturama,

like batteries and like solar cells?

poput baterija i solarnih ćelija.

What if they had some of the same capabilities

Šta ako bi oni imali neke od sposobnosti

that an abalone shell did,

koje abalon školjka ima,

in terms of being able to build really exquisite structures

u pogledu mogućnosti

da izgradi veoma izvrsne strukture,

at room temperature and room pressure,

na sobnoj temperaturi i sobnom pritisku

using nontoxic chemicals

koristeći netoksične hemikalije

and adding no toxic materials back into the environment?

i ne ispuštajućin ikakve toksine u životno okruženje?

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

To je vizija o kojoj sam razmišljala.

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

Šta ako bismo mogli da uzgojimo bateriju u Petrijevoj šolji?

Or what if you could give genetic information to a battery

Ili, šta ako bismo mogli bateriji da damo genetsku informaciju

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

tako da zapravo postane bolja

u smislu njenog životnog veka,

a da to uradimo na način koji je prijateljski prema okruženju?

in an environmentally friendly way?

And so, going back to this abalone shell,

Vratimo se sada na ovu abalon školjku,

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

osim što je nano strukturisana

jedna stvar koja je fascinantna

when a male and female abalone get together,

je da kada se muška i ženska abalon školjka nađu zajedno,

they pass on the genetic information that says,

one prenose genetske informacije

"This is how to build an exquisite material.

koje kažu: "Ovako se izgrađuje jedan izvrstan materijal.

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

Ovako se to radi na sobnoj temperaturi i pritisku,

using nontoxic materials."

korišćenjem netoksičnih materijala".

Same with diatoms, which are shown right here,

Isto je i sa silikatnim algama, staklaste strukture, prikazanim ovde.

which are glasseous structures.

Every time the diatoms replicate,

Svaki put kada se ove alge kopiraju,

they give the genetic information that says,

daju genetsku informaciju koja kaže:

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

"Evo kako da u okeanu izgradite staklo

koje je savršene nano strukture.

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

Ovo možete da ponavljate, iznova i iznova".

Šta ako biste mogli da uradite istu stvar

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

sa solarnom ćelijom ili baterijom?

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

Volim da kažem da je moj omiljeni biomaterijal moj četvorogodišnjak.

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

Svako ko ima ili zna malu decu,

zna da su oni neverovatno složeni organizmi.

they're incredibly complex organisms.

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

Ako biste želeli da ih ubedite

da urade nešto što oni ne žele, to je veoma teško.

it's very difficult.

So when we think about future technologies,

Kada mislimo o budućim tehnologijama

we actually think of using bacteria and viruses --

zapravo mislimo na upotrebu bakterija i virusa,

simple organisms.

jednostavnih organizama.

Can you convince them to work with a new toolbox,

Možete li ih ubediti da rade sa novim alatom,

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

tako da mogu izgraditi strukturu

koja će za mene biti značajna?

Also, when we think about future technologies,

Takođe, kada mislimo o budućim tehnologijama,

we start with the beginning of Earth.

počinjemo sa početkom Zemlje.

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

U osnovi, bilo je neophodno milijardu godina

da se stvori život na Zemlji.

And very rapidly, they became multi-cellular,

Ubrzo su nastali višećelijski organizmi,

they could replicate, they could use photosynthesis

mogli su da se reprodukuju, da koriste fotosintezu

as a way of getting their energy source.

kao način dobijanja energetskog izvora.

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

Ali do pre 500 miliona godina -

tokom geološkog perioda Kambrijuma -

during the Cambrian geologic time period --

that organisms in the ocean started making hard materials.

organizmi u okeanu nisu mogli da formiraju čvrste materijale.

Before that, they were all soft, fluffy structures.

Pre toga, svi su bili mekane, paperjaste strukture.

It was during this time that there was increased calcium,

Tokom ovog perioda

postojale su uvećane količine kalcijuma, gvožđa

iron and silicon in the environment,

i silikona u životnom okruženju

and organisms learned how to make hard materials.

i organizmi su naučili kako da naprave ove čvrste materijale.

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

To je ono što bih volela da mogu da uradim -

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

da ubedim biologiju

da sarađuje sa ostatkom periodnog sistema elemenata.

Now, if you look at biology,

Sada, ako pogledate biologiju,

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

videćete mnoge strukture poput DNK i antitela

i proteina i ribozoma za koje ste čuli,

you've heard about,

that are nanostructured --

a koji su već nano strukturirani.

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

Dakle, priroda nam već daje

zaista izvrsne strukture na nano skali.

What if we could harness them

Šta ako bismo mogli da ih iskoristimo

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

i ubedimo ih da ne budu antitela

koja se bave nečime poput HIV-a?

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

Ali šta ako bismo mogli da ih ubedimo

da za nas izgrade solarnu ćeliju?

Here are some examples.

Evo nekih primera: ovo su neki od prirodnih bioloških materijala.

Natural shells, natural biological materials.

The abalone shell here.

Ova abalon školjka ovde - ako je polomite,

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

možete videti da je zapravo nano strukturirana.

There's diatoms made out of SiO2,

Ima silikatnih algi koje su napravljene od silikon dioksida,

and there are magnetotactic bacteria

i one su magnetotaktične bakterije

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

koje stvaraju male magnete u jednom području radi navigacije.

What all these have in common

Ono što im je svima zajedničko

is these materials are structured at the nano scale,

jeste da su svi ovi materijali strukturisani na nano skali,

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

i imaju DNK niz

koji šifrira proteinski niz

that gives them the blueprint

i daje im šemu

to be able to build these really wonderful structures.

da bi mogle da naprave ove zaista divne strukture.

Now, going back to the abalone shell,

Sada, vratimo se na abalon školjku,

the abalone makes this shell by having these proteins.

koja stvara svoju ljušturu od ovih proteina.

These proteins are very negatively charged.

Ovi proteini su jako negativno naelektrisani.

They can pull calcium out of the environment,

Mogu da privuku kalcijum iz okruženja,

deponuju sloj kalcijuma onda karbonata, kalcijuma pa karbonata.

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

Ima hemijske nizove amino kiselina,

It has the chemical sequences of amino acids which says,

koje kažu: "Evo kako da izgradite tu strukturu.

"This is how to build the structure.

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

Evo DNK niza, evo proteinskog niza

in order to do it."

da biste ih napravili".

So an interesting idea is,

Jedna interesantna ideja je,

what if you could take any material you wanted,

šta ako biste mogli da uzmete koji god materijal poželite,

or any element on the periodic table,

ili bilo koji element periodnog sistema elemenata,

and find its corresponding DNA sequence,

i da nađete njegov odgovarajući DNK niz,

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

onda ga šifrirate za odgovarajući proteinski niz

da biste izgradili strukturu, ali ne abalon školjku -

but not build an abalone shell --

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

da biste izgradili nešto sa čime

do sada priroda nije imala prilike da radi.

And so here's the periodic table.

Ovo je periodni sistem elemenata.

I absolutely love the periodic table.

Ja ga apsolutno obožavam.

Every year for the incoming freshman class at MIT,

Svake godine za brucoše na Masačusetskom tehnološkom institutu

I have a periodic table made that says,

imam periodni sistem koji kaže:

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

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

(Laughter)

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

Ako ga okrenete, videćete amino kiseline

with the pH at which they have different charges.

sa pH na kome prolaze kroz različite promene.

And so I give this out to thousands of people.

Ovo podelim hiljadama ljudi.

And I know it says MIT and this is Caltech,

Znam da piše MTI, a da je ovo Kaltek,

ali imam nešto viška za ljude koji ih žele.

but I have a couple extra if people want it.

Bila sam veoma srećna

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

kada je predsednik Obama posetio moju laboratoriju ove godine

on his visit to MIT,

tokom njegove posete MTI-u,

and I really wanted to give him a periodic table.

i zaista sam želela da mu dam periodni sistem elemenata.

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

Cele noći sam pričala s mužem:

"How do I give President Obama a periodic table?

"Kako da dam predsedniku Obami periodni sistem?

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

Šta ako kaže: "Oh, već imam jedan",

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

ili: "Već sam ga zapamtio"? (Smeh)

(Laughter)

I tako je on došao da poseti moju laboratoriju

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

i razgledao je okolo - bila je to sjajna poseta.

And then afterward, I said,

Nakon toga, rekla sam:

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

"Gospodine, želela bih da vam dam periodni sistem

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

u slučaju da ste ikada u teškoj situaciji i treba da izračunate molekularnu težinu".

(Laughter)

Mislila sam da molekularna težina zvuči manje štreberski

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

od molarne mase.

(Laughter)

(Smeh)

And he looked at it and said,

On ga je pogledao i rekao:

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

"Hvala Vam. Pogledaću ga periodično".

(Laughter)

(Smeh)

(Applause)

(Aplauz)

Later in a lecture that he gave on clean energy,

Kasnije ga je, u predavanju koje je držao na temu čiste energije,

he pulled it out and said,

izvukao i rekao:

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

"A ljudi na MTI-ju, oni dele periodne sisteme".

So basically what I didn't tell you

Ono što vam nisam rekla je da su

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

pre oko 500 miliona godina, organizmi počeli da stvaraju materijale,

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

ali im je trebalo oko 50 miliona godina da bi postali dobri u tome.

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

I trebalo im je 50 miliona godina

da bi usavršili stvaranje te abalon školjke.

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

Studente je teško ubediti u ovo.

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

"Imam ovaj izvanredan projekat - 50 miliona godina."

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

Morali smo da razvijemo način

da pokušamo da uradimo ovo brže.

And so we use a nontoxic virus called M13 bacteriophage,

Tako koristimo viruse, tj. netoksične viruse

nazvane M13 bakteriofazi

whose job is to infect bacteria.

čiji je posao da zaraze bakteriju.

Well, it has a simple DNA structure

Ima jednostavnu DNK strukturu

koju možete iseći i na nju nalepiti

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

dodatne DNK nizove.

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

Radeći ovo, dozvoljavate virusu

da izrazi različite proteinske nizove.

This is pretty easy biotechnology,

Ovo je veoma laka biotehnologija.

and you could basically do this a billion times.

Ovo doslovce možete uraditi milijardu puta.

So you can have a billion different viruses

Tako, imate milijardu virusa

that are all genetically identical,

koji su genetski isti,

but they differ from each other based on their tips,

ali koji se malo razlikuju međusobno na vrhovima,

on one sequence,

na jednom nizu

koji šifrira jedan protein.

that codes for one protein.

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

Ako uzmete milijardu virusa

i stavite ih u jednu kap tečnosti,

you can force them to interact with anything you want

možete ih naterati da reaguju sa bilo čime iz periodnog sistema.

on the periodic table.

Procesom selektivne evolucije možete izvući

And through a process of selection evolution,

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

jednog iz milijarde koji će da radi tačno ono što biste želeli,

like grow a battery or a solar cell.

kao na primer, da uzgoji bateriju ili solarnu ćeliju.

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

U osnovi, virusi ne mogu da se razmnožavaju, treba im domaćin.

Once you find that one out of a billion,

Jednom kada nađete tog jednog u milijardi,

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

zarazite bakteriju njime

i stvorite milione i milijarde kopija upravo tog niza.

of that particular sequence.

The other thing that's beautiful about biology

Druga stvar koja je divna u vezi sa biologijom

is that biology gives you really exquisite structures

jeste što vam biologija pruža izvanredne strukture

with nice link scales.

sa veoma finim vezama skala.

These viruses are long and skinny,

Ovi virusi su dugi i mršavi,

and we can get them to express the ability

i možemo ih naterati da izraze sposobnost

to grow something like semiconductors

izgradnje nečega poput poluprovodnika

or materials for batteries.

ili materijale za baterije.

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

Ovo je baterija visokog napona koju sam uzgojila u laboratoriji.

We engineered a virus to pick up carbon nanotubes.

Napravili smo virus koji može da podigne ugljenične nano cevčice.

One part of the virus grabs a carbon nanotube,

Dakle, jedan deo virusa podigne ugljeničnu nano cevčicu.

the other part of the virus has a sequence

Drugi deo virusa ima niz

that can grow an electrode material for a battery,

koji može da izgradi elektrodu za bateriju.

and then it wires itself to the current collector.

Onda se poveže za kolektor struje.

And so through a process of selection evolution,

Tako, kroz proces selektivne evolucije,

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

smo napredovali od virusa koji je mogao da napravi jadnu bateriju,

to a virus that made a good battery

preko virusa koji može da napravi dobru bateriju,

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

do virusa koji je napravio jaku bateriju, koja obara rekorde,

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

a sve ovo je napravljeno na sobnoj temperaturi,

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

praktično na radnoj površini.

Ta baterija je poslata u Belu kuću, na konferenciju za štampu.

and I brought it here.

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

Ja sam je donela ovde.

Ovde je možete videti kako osvetljava ovu "LED" diodu.

Now if we could scale this,

Ako bismo mogli da repliciramo ovo,

you could actually use it to run your Prius,

mogli biste da je koristite

za pokretanje vašeg Prijusa,

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

što je moj san - da vozimo automobile pokrenute virusima.

(Smeh)

(Laughter)

U osnovi -

But basically you can pull one out of a billion,

možete da dobijete jednog u milijardi.

and make lots of amplifications to it.

Možete napraviti puno pojačanja na ovome.

Basically, you make an amplification in the lab,

U osnovi, možete napraviti pojačanje u laboratoriji

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

i možete je naterati da se sama sastavi

u strukturu nalik bateriji.

We're able to do this also with catalysis.

U mogućnosti smo da ovo uradimo i sa katalizom.

This is the example of a photocatalytic splitting of water.

Ovo je primer

fotokatalitičkog razdvajanja vode.

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

Ono što smo u mogućnosti da uradimo je da

napravimo virus koji može da uhvati molekule koji vezuju boju

to basically take dye-absorbing molecules

and line them up on the surface of the virus

i poređa ih po površini virusa

so it acts as an antenna,

tako da se ponašaju kao antena,

and you get an energy transfer across the virus.

a vi dobijete protok energije preko virusa.

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

Onda mu damo još jedan gen

da bi uzgojio neorganski materijal

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

koji se može koristiti da razdvoji vodu

na kiseonik i vodonik

that can be used for clean fuels.

koji se mogu upotrebiti za čista goriva.

I brought an example of that with me today.

Danas sam sa sobom donela jedan primerak.

My students promised me it would work.

Moji studenti su mi obećali da će raditi.

These are virus-assembled nanowires.

Ovo su nano žice sastavljene uz pomoć virusa.

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

Kada ih obasjate svetlošću, vidite kako se formiraju mehurići.

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

U ovom slučaju, vidite mehuriće kiseonika kako izlaze.

(Applause)

(Aplauz)

Basically, by controlling the genes,

U osnovi, kontrolišući gene, možete kontrolisati

you can control multiple materials to improve your device performance.

mnogo materijala da biste unapredili učinak vašeg uređaja.

The last example are solar cells.

Poslednji primer su solarne ćelije.

You can also do this with solar cells.

Ovo takođe možete uraditi sa solarnim ćelijama.

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

Možemo da napravimo viruse

koji podižu ugljenične nano cevčice

and then grow titanium dioxide around them,

i onda uzgoje titanijum-dioksid oko sebe -

i koriste ga kao način da pokrenu elektrone kroz uređaj.

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

And what we've found is through genetic engineering,

Otkrili smo da kroz genetski inženjering,

we can actually increase the efficiencies of these solar cells

zapravo možemo povećati

učinak ovih solarnih ćelija

to record numbers

do rekordnih brojeva

for these types of dye-sensitized systems.

za ove tipove sistema osetljivih na boje.

And I brought one of those as well,

Donela sam i jednu od njih takođe

that you can play around with outside afterward.

sa kojom posle možete da se igrate napolju.

So this is a virus-based solar cell.

Dakle, ovo je solarna ćelija zasnovana na virusima.

Through evolution and selection,

Kroz evoluciju i selekciju

we took it from an eight percent efficiency solar cell

došli smo od solarne ćelije sa učinkom od 8 odsto

to an 11 percent efficiency solar cell.

do solarne ćelije sa učinkom od 11 odsto.

So I hope that I've convinced you

Nadam se da sam vas ubedila

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

da postoji mnogo velikih, interesantnih stvari koje se mogu naučiti

about how nature makes materials,

o tome kako priroda pravi materijale -

and about taking it the next step,

i dovođenja proizvodnje na sledeći nivo

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

da bismo videli da li možete da prisilite

ili da iskoristite prednost načina na koji priroda to radi,

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

da biste stvorili materijale o kojima priroda još i ne sanja.

Thank you.

(Applause)

Hvala vam.