What sticky sea creatures can teach us about making glue | Jonathan Wilker

Translator: Hiroko Kawano Reviewer: Tanya Cushman

翻译人员: Alex Liu 校对人员: Lipeng Chen

So I'd like you to join me on a field trip,

我想邀请你们加入这趟野外实地考察，

and I want to go to the beach and take you all to the beach

我想去海边，带你们去到海边，

and so enjoy the sea air and the salt spray.

享受带有海水盐味的空气。

And let's go down to the water's edge,

然后一直走到岸边，

and you'll notice we're getting knocked around by the waves,

你会发现我们正不断被海浪冲击着，

and it's really difficult to stay in place, right?

这很难站稳，不是吗？

But now, look down,

但是现在，往下看，

and what you're going to see

你将会看到

is that the rocks are covered by all sorts of sea creatures

在岩石上附着着各式各样的海洋生物，

that are just staying there in place, no problem.

哪怕波浪滔天，我自岿然不动。

It turns out that if you want to survive in this really demanding environment,

事实证明，如果你想要 在这极为恶劣的环境中生存，

your very existence is dependent upon your ability to make glue, actually.

你的存亡取决于你产生黏液的能力。

So let me introduce you to some of the heroes of our story,

所以让我来向你们介绍一下故事中的主角，

just a few of them.

只讲几个好了。

So these are mussels,

首先是一些贻贝，

and you'll notice they're covering the rocks,

你将会发现它们是覆盖在岩石上的。

and what they've done is made adhesives,

它们产生黏液，

and they're sticking down on the rocks,

牢牢地粘在石头上，

and they're sticking to each other, actually.

它们彼此也紧密地粘在一起。

So they're hunkered down together as a group.

以群体的形式存在，

This is a close-up photograph of an oyster reef,

这就是牡蛎礁石的特写镜头，

and oysters, they're amazing.

牡蛎也是奇妙的生物。

What they do is they cement to each other,

它们彼此紧紧粘着，

and they build these huge, extensive reef systems.

从而建造了这些巨大、广阔的礁石系统。

They can be kilometers long, they can be meters deep,

有些礁石有数千米长，数米深，

and arguably, they are the most dominant influence

它们很有可能是

on how healthy any coastal marine ecosystem is going to be

决定着海岸生物系统健康的主要因素，

because what they do is they're filtering the water constantly,

因为它们不断地过滤海水，

they're holding sand and dirt in place.

把沙子和泥土留在岸上。

Actually, other species live inside of these reefs.

事实上，其他生物也栖息在这些礁石里。

And then, if you think about what happens when a storm comes in,

你也许会想如果风暴来临又会发生什么呢，

if the storm surge first has to hit miles of these reefs,

如果风暴骤然降临， 这些数英里长的礁石首当其冲，

the coast behind it is going to be protected.

而同时在它后面的海岸就受到了保护。

So they're really quite influential.

所以它们真的非常重要。

If you've been to any rocky beach pretty much anywhere in the world,

全世界有非常多的礁石海滩， 如果你有去过任何一个，

you're probably familiar with what barnacles look like.

你可能会对藤壶很熟悉。

And so what these animals do -

这些动物——

and there's many others, these are just three of them -

还有其他许多生物，这只是其中的三种——

is they make adhesives,

它们产生黏液，

they stick to each other and to the rocks and they build communities,

它们相互粘在一起， 粘在石头上，建立群落，

and by doing this, there's a lot of survival advantages they get.

它们通过这种方式获得更多的生存优势。

So one of them is that just any individual is subjected to less of the turbulence

其中一个优势就是任何个体受湍流

and all the damaging features that can happen from that environment.

以及其他环境损害因素的影响更小。

So they're all hunkered down there.

因此它们都依附在这些石头上。

Then, also, there's a safety in numbers thing

除此之外，安全也是其中一个优势，

because it also helps you keep away the predators,

因为这也有助于它们躲避捕食者，

because if, say, a seagull wants to pick you up and eat you,

比如说，一只海鸥想要把你叼起来吃掉，

it's more difficult for the seagull if they're stuck together.

如果它们彼此紧紧地黏在一起， 那海鸥就很难抓它们。

And then another thing is it also helps with reproductive efficiency.

另外一点，这也有助于它们提高繁殖效率。

So you can imagine that when Mr. and Mrs. Barnacle decide,

你可以想象一下， 当藤壶先生和藤壶小姐决定，

"OK, it's time to have little baby barnacles" -

“好，是生小藤壶宝宝的时候了”——

I won't tell you how they do that just yet -

我不会告诉你们它们是如何做的，

but when they decide it's time to do that,

但当它们觉得时机到了，

it's a lot easier,

如果居住得近，

and their reproductive efficiency's higher if they're all living close together.

它们可以更简单、高效地繁殖。

So we want to understand how they do this:

因此我们想要去了解它们是如何

How do they stick?

黏在一起的？

And I can't really tell you all the details,

我无法告诉你全部的细节，

because we're still trying to figure it out,

因为我们仍在试图弄清楚原理，

but let me give you a little flavor

但我想让你们先了解一下

of some of the things that we're trying to do.

我们正在做的事情。

This is a picture of one of the aquarium systems we have in our lab,

这张图片是我们实验室里的一个水生系统，

and everything in the image is part of the system,

图中所呈现的只是这个系统的一部分，

and so what we do is we keep -

我们要做的就是饲养

and you can see in the glass tank there, at the bottom, a bunch of mussels.

你可以看到在玻璃水箱底部有一群贻贝，

We have the water chilled, we have the lights cycled,

我们使水冷却，使光线按日夜交替循环，

we actually have turbulence in the system

而且我们还在系统里设置了湍流，

because the animals make more adhesives for us

当湍流产生时，这些动物就可以

when the water is turbulent.

为我们产生更多的黏液。

So we induce them to make the adhesive,

我们诱使它们产生更多黏液，

we collect it, we study it.

然后我们将之收集起来，并研究它。

They're here in Indiana;

它们现在在印第安纳州。

as far as they know, they're in Maine in February,

但对贻贝来说，它们正在二月份的缅因海边，

and they seem to be pretty happy, as far as we can tell.

它们应该挺高兴的，就我所知。

And then we also work with oysters,

我们也研究牡蛎，

and up top, it's a photo of a small reef in South Carolina,

上面那张图片是一块南卡罗来纳州的小礁石，

and what we're most interested in is how they attach to each other,

我们最感兴趣的是它们 如何粘着彼此，

how they connect.

它们如何相互连接。

So what you can see in the bottom image is two oysters cementing to each other.

你看下面这张图， 这是两个相互连在一起的牡蛎。

We want to know what's in between,

我们想知道在这中间有什么，

and so a lot of times, we'll cut them and look down,

所以很多次我们将它们分开，然后观察，

and in the next series of images we have here,

接下来的一组图片，

you can see, on the bottom, we'll have two shells,

在左下角的这张图片里有两个壳，

the shell of one animal and the shell of another animal,

一个动物的壳和另一个动物的壳，

and the cement's in between.

黏合物在中间。

If you look at the image on the right,

如果你看右边这张图，

what you can maybe see

你可能看到

is that there's structure in the shell of each animal,

每个动物壳里都有的结构，

but then, the cement actually looks different.

然而，黏合物看起来并不一样。

And so we're using all sorts of fancy biology and chemistry tools

所以我们正用各种生物和化学工具

to understand what's going on in there,

试图去了解这里面究竟有什么，

and what we're finding is the structures are different

我们发现这些结构是不一样的

and the chemistry is actually different, and it's quite interesting.

并且化学成分也不一样，这就十分的有趣。

And in this picture -

这张图——

I guess, let me step back before I tell you what this is.

在我告诉你们这是什么前， 我想让你们回忆一下，

So do you know the cartoon "The Magic School Bus"?

你知道《神奇校车》这部动画片吗？

Or if you're a little bit older, "Fantastic Voyage," right?

或者如果你年龄更大一点的话， 知道《神奇之旅》这部电影吗？

And you remember, they had characters

你记得这些动画片

that they would shrink down to these microscopic levels,

他们把里面的角色缩小到微粒大小，

and then they would sort of swirl in

然后一番天旋地转，

and swim around and fly around all these biological structures?

在这些生物构造旁游过飞过。

I think of this as like that, except for it's real in this case.

这有点像卡通电影里那样， 而我们真的在这样做。

And so what we did is we have two oysters that are stuck together,

我们有两个粘在一起的牡蛎，

and this area used to be completely filled in with the cement,

这块区域曾被填满黏合物，

and what we're finding is that the cement has lots of different components in there,

我们发现这些黏合物有许多不同的成份，

but broadly speaking, there are hard, non-sticky parts

但一般来说，它们分为 很牢固却没有黏性的部分，

and there are soft, sticky parts,

和很柔软却有黏性的部分。

and what we did is we removed the non-sticky parts selectively

我们选择性地移除非黏性部分，

to see what's left -

由此观察究竟是什么

for what's actually attaching the animals -

连接着动物，

and what we got is this,

我们收获了这个，

and we can see there's a sticky adhesive that's holding them together.

这些就是将它们粘在一起的黏合物。

And I just think it's a really cool image

我认为这张图片真的很酷。

because you can imagine yourself flying in and going back there.

因为你可以想象自己飞进去再回来。

Anyways, those are some of the things we're doing to understand

不管怎样，我们做这些是为了理解

how marine biology is making these materials.

海洋生物是如何产生这些物质。

And from a fundamental perspective, it's really exciting to learn.

从根本上看，研究这些真的很令人兴奋。

But what do we want to do with this information?

但是有了这些信息后， 我们想要做什么呢？

Well, there's a lot of technological applications

如果我们了解了这些动物生产黏液的方式，

if we can harness what the animals are doing.

我们就可以将其应用到许多技术上。

So let me give you one example.

我来举一个例子。

So imagine you're at home

想象你在家里，

and you break your favorite figurine or a mug or something like that.

你打碎了最喜爱的小雕像 或杯子或类似的东西，

You want to put it back together.

你想把它拼回去。

So where do you go?

你会去哪里？

You go to my favorite place in town,

你会去镇上我最爱的地方，

which is the glue aisle of the hardware store.

五金店里的胶水货架。

I know where you spend your nights

我知道你们是在哪里度过你们的夜晚，

because you're all hip, cool people, because you're here,

你们都是很时尚、很酷的人，所以会在这里

and you're going to bars and concerts -

你们会去酒吧或者音乐会，

this is where I hang out every night.

而这是我每晚都会去闲逛的地方。

So anyways,

无论如何，

so what I want you to do is get one of every adhesive that's on the shelf,

我想让你做的是， 把货架上的每一种胶水都拿一个，

bring it home,

带回家，

but before you try to put things back together,

在你试图将碎片拼回去前，

I want you to try to do it in a bucket of water.

我想要你先在水中试试。

It's won't work, right? We all know this.

不起作用，对吗？ 我们都知道。

So obviously, marine biology has solved this,

显然，海洋生物解决了这个问题，

so what we need to do is figure out ways to be able to copy this ourselves.

我们需要做的是 找出复制这种行为的解决方法。

And one of the issues here

其中有个问题是，

is you can't just go and get the materials from the beach,

你不能直接去海边获得这些物质，

because if you get some mussels and try to milk them for their adhesive,

因为如果你有一群贻贝， 尝试挤出里面的黏液，

you'll get a little bit of material,

你只能得到一点点，

but you're never going to have enough to do anything with, just enough to see.

但这点根本不够看，远不能满足需求。

We need to scale this up, ideally maybe train-car scale.

我们需要扩大规模， 最好是一节火车厢的量。

So on the top is an image of one of the types of molecules

上面的图片是

that the animals use to make their glue,

动物用来制造胶体的一种分子，

and what they are is very long molecules called proteins,

它们是很长的蛋白质分子，

and these proteins happen to have some fairly unique parts in them

这些蛋白质有一些特殊的成份，

that bring about the adhesive properties.

这些成份可以产生黏性。

What we want to do is take those little parts of that chemistry,

我们想提取一小部分化学基团，

and we want to put it into other long molecules that we can get,

放入另一种易于获取的长链分子中

but that we can make on a really large scale,

从而实现大规模生产，

so you might know them as plastics or polymers,

你也许知道这些长链分子 就是“塑料”或者说 “聚合物”，

and so we're sort of simplifying what they do

由此我们仅需把黏性化学基团放入这些大分子中，

but then putting that adhesion chemistry into these large molecules.

大大简化这种黏合剂的生产流程，

And we've developed many different adhesive systems in doing this.

我们已经研制出许多不同的黏性系统，

When you make a new adhesive that looks pretty good, what do you do?

当你制造出一种看起来 很不错的黏合剂时，你会做什么呢？

You start running around the lab, just sticking stuff together.

你会在实验室里到处乱窜，到处粘东西。

In this case, we took a bit of a glue and glued together two pieces of metal.

这时，我们会取一点这种胶水， 把两片金属粘在一起，

We hung something from it to see what it looked like,

我们想往上挂点东西，

so we used a pot of live mussels, and we thought we were very clever.

所以我们用了一桶活的贻贝，自认为很聪明。

(Laughs)

（笑声）

We're obviously much more quantitative about this most often,

当然我们常常把这个量化了，

and so we benchmark against commercial adhesives,

我们将其与市场上胶水进行比较，

and we actually have some materials now that are stronger than superglue.

事实上，我们现在有着 比超强力胶水更厉害的黏合物。

So to me, that's really cool.

对我来说，这很酷。

That's a good day in the lab: it's stronger than superglue.

那是在实验室里很美好的一天， 它们比强力胶更厉害！

And here's something else that we can do.

我们还做到了这个：

So this is a tank of seawater,

这是一缸海水，

and then in that syringe is one of our adhesive formulations.

注射器里是我们研发的其中一种黏液配方，

What we're doing is we're dispensing it completely underwater

我们正在做的是，完全在水下

on a piece of metal.

在一块金属片上点胶。

And then we want to make an adhesive bond, or joint.

我们想要制作一个黏性纽带或黏合点，

So we take another piece of metal,

所以我们取另一个金属片，

and we put it on there and just position it.

把它放在那里，调整位置。

And you want to let it set up for a while, give it a chance,

让胶先干一会，给点时间，

so we'll just put a weight on it, nothing fancy.

在上面增加点重量，没什么复杂的。

This is a tube with lead shot in it, nothing fancy.

这是一个含铅的管子，也没什么特别的。

And then you let it sit for a while.

然后静置一会。

So this has never seen air; it's completely underwater.

这从头至尾都没有接触空气， 完全在水下操作。

And you pick it up.

最后把它拿起来。

I never know what's going to happen; I'm always very anxious here.

我不知道将会发生什么事，所以到这里我很紧张。

You pick it up ...

拿起来...

and it stuck.

它粘住了。

To me, this is really cool.

对我来说，这真的很棒。

So we can actually get very strong underwater adhesion.

我们可以得到很强的 水下黏附力。

Possibly, it's the strongest or one of the strongest underwater adhesives

这可能是前所未有的最强水下黏合剂

that's ever been seen.

或至少是其中之一。

It's even stronger than the materials that the animals produce,

它比动物产生的物质还要牢固，

so for us, it's pretty exciting, it's pretty cool.

对我们而言，这真的太让人激动，太酷了。

So what do we want to do with these things?

那我们拿这些东西来做什么呢？

Well, here are some products that you're probably really familiar with.

这里有一些你可能很熟悉的东西。

So think about your cell phone, your laptop, plywood in most structures,

想想你的手机、笔记本电脑、 大多数建筑用的胶合板，

the interior of your car, shoes, phone books - things like this.

你车里的内饰、鞋子、电话本等等。

They're all held together with adhesives,

它们都是用黏合剂粘在一起的，

and there's two main problems

这些产品用的黏合剂

with the adhesives used in these materials.

有两个问题。

The first one is that they're toxic.

第一，它们是有毒的。

So the worst offender here is plywood.

最糟糕的是胶合板。

Plywood or a lot of furniture or wood laminate in floors -

胶合板、许多家具还有复合地板，

a main component of the adhesives here is formaldehyde,

这些黏合剂的最主要成份是甲醛，

and it's maybe a compound you've heard of.

你可能听过这个化合物。

It's a gas, and it's also a carcinogen,

它是一种具有挥发性的致癌物质。

and so we're constructing a lot of structures from these adhesives,

所以我们用这些黏合剂来建造建筑时，

and we're also breathing a lot of this carcinogen.

我们也吸入了大量的致癌物质。

So not good, obviously, right?

显然，这不好，对吧？

The other issue is that these adhesives are all permanent.

另一个问题是这些黏合剂都是永久性的。

And so what do you do with your shoes or your car or even your laptop

你会怎么处理

at the end of life, when you're done using it?

用旧的鞋子、车甚至是你的笔记本电脑？

For the most part, they end up in landfills.

这些东西的大多数最后都进入了垃圾场。

There's precious materials in there

在那里有许多珍贵的材料，

we'd love to be able to get out and recycle them,

我们想把它们取出来回收利用。

but we can't do it so easily,

但这并不容易做到，

because they're all stuck together permanently, right?

因为它们永久地粘在了一起。

So here's one approach we're taking to try and solve some of these problems,

所以我们可以尝试 采用一种方法解决部分问题，

and what we've done here is we've taken another long molecule

我们做的就是从玉米中

that we can actually get from corn,

提取另一种长链分子，

and then into that molecule,

然后将贻贝的

we've put some of the adhesion chemistry from the mussels.

一些粘性化学基团放入分子里。

So because we've got the corn and we've got the mussels,

因为我们既用到了玉米又用到了贻贝，

we call this our surf-and-turf polymer.

所以我们称它为海陆聚合物。

And it sticks. It sticks really well.

它的黏性很强，

It's very strong.

也十分牢固。

It's also bio-based. That's nice.

它是生物材料，这点很棒。

But maybe more importantly, here, it's also degradable;

这意味着，它是可降解的。

we can degrade it under very mild conditions,

我们可以在十分温和的条件下，

just with water.

进行水解。

And so what we can do is we can set things up

所以我们将东西黏在一起

and we can bond them strongly when we want,

它们会黏的很牢固，

but we can also take them apart when we want.

在需要的时候，我们也可以把它们拆开。

It's something we're thinking about.

这就是我们正在研究的东西。

And here is a place where a lot of us want to be.

这是许多人都需要的。

Actually, in this specific case, this is a place we do not want to be,

但坦白来说，我们都不想碰到这种情况，

but we'd like to replace this.

我们想将它们取而代之。

So sutures, staples, screws:

缝合线、订钉、螺丝，

this is how we put you back together if you've had some surgery or an injury.

当你们在做手术或受伤时， 医生用它们将伤口缝合。

It's just awful. It hurts.

这很可怕，也很痛。

In the case of the sutures,

以缝合线为例，

look at how much you're making concentrated, mechanical stresses

当你缝合伤口时，你要耗费多少

as you pull things together;

精力和体力。

you're making sites for infection;

而且还容易造成感染。

poke holes in healthy tissue - it's not so good.

往健康组织里戳洞， 这种感觉很不好。

Or if you need a plate to hold together your bones,

或者你需要板子来固定衔接骨头，

look at how much healthy bone you have to drill out

看看你要钻穿多少健康的骨头，

just to hold the plate in place - so this is awful.

只是为了放一块板子在那 ——这是多么糟糕。

To me, it looks like these were devised in a medieval torture chamber,

对我来说，它看起来 像中世纪刑讯室发明的东西，

but it's our modern surgical joinery.

但它的确是现代外科医生的工具。

So I'd love it if we'd get to a place where we can replace systems like this

所以我非常期待可以用黏合剂来取代

with adhesives, right?

这些手段。

It's not easy.

这并不容易，

We're working on this, but this is not easy.

我们正在研究。

So think about what you would need for adhesives in these cases.

想想看在这些情况下 你需要有什么特性的黏合剂。

So first of all,

首先，

you would need an adhesive that will set in a wet environment.

它必须可以在潮湿环境中起效，

And if you look at the silly little picture there,

你可以看这张有点蠢的图片，

it's just to illustrate that our bodies are about 60 percent water,

这张图说明了我们人体里60%都是水，

so it's a wet environment.

这是一个潮湿的环境。

It's also to illustrate that this is why I am a scientist and not an artist.

这张图也证明了为什么我是科学家而不是画家。

I did not miss my calling at all.

我完全没有选错职业。

So then, the other requirements you need for a good biomedical adhesive:

一个优良的生物医学黏合剂 还需要满足另一个要求，

it needs to bond strongly, of course,

它需要很牢固地粘合在一起，

and it needs to not be toxic.

并且它还是无毒的。

You don't want to hurt the patients.

你不想伤害你的病人。

And getting any two of those requirements in a material is pretty easy.

一个物质满足 任意两个要求还是很容易的。

It's been done many times.

它已经被试验很多次了。

But getting all three hasn't been done; it's very hard.

但要满足全部三个条件，还是很困难的。

And then if you talk to surgeons, they get really picky:

如果你去咨询医生，他们会更加挑剔，

"Oh, actually I want the adhesive to set on the same time frame as the surgery."

“事实上，我想要黏合剂在手术当场就能凝固。“

Oh, okay.

好的，可以。

Or, "Oh, I want the adhesive to degrade

或者，“我想要黏合剂可以降解，

so the patient's tissues can remodel the site."

这样患者的组织就可以把它吸收。”

So this is really hard. We're working on it.

这着实很难，但我们正在研究。

This is just one image we have.

这只是我们拍摄的一张照片。

So we're getting all sorts of bones and skin and soft tissue and hard tissue,

我们正在用各种骨头、皮肤、软组织、硬组织，

and sometimes we'll whack it with a hammer.

有时候我们将会用锤子敲碎它们，

Usually, we're cutting it in very precise shapes;

通常我们会将它切成精确的形状。

then we glue them back together.

然后再把它们黏回去。

We've got some exciting results, some strong materials,

我们已经得到一些令人兴奋的成果， 一些强韧的物质，

some things that look like they're not toxic.

看起来无毒，

They set wet, looks pretty good,

而又耐潮。

but I won't tell you we've solved the wet-adhesion problem,

但是我不能说我们已经 解决了潮湿黏附力的问题，

because we haven't,

因为我们还没完成，

but it's certainly in our sights for the future.

但它肯定是我们未来的目标。

So that's one place that we'd like to see things go farther down the road.

这是我们期待看到有更多发展的领域之一。

There's lots of other places, too, you can imagine,

当然还有许多其他的领域， 你可以想象一下，

we might be better off if we could get more adhesives in there.

我们的生活将会更好， 如果我们可以获得更多黏合剂。

So one thing is cosmetics.

甚至是化妆品。

So if you think about people putting on fake nails or eyelash extensions here -

有些人会美甲或带假睫毛，

like this -

诸如此类。

what do they use?

他们会用什么？

They use very toxic adhesives right now.

现在用的都是毒性很强的黏合剂。

So it's just ripe for replacement.

是时候替换掉了。

That's something we'd like to do.

这就是我们想做的事。

And there are other places too.

也有其他一些领域，

So think about cars and planes.

像车、飞机。

The lighter you can make them,

它们制造得越轻，

the more fuel efficient they're going to be.

就越省油。

And so if we can get away from rivets and from welding

所以如果我们可以用更多的黏合剂

to put more adhesives in there,

来替代铆钉和焊接，

then we might be better off

未来的交通会便利，

with our future generation of transportation.

我们的生活也可能会更好。

So for us, this all comes back to the beach.

让我们回到海滩。

So we look around and we wonder, "How do these sea creatures stick?

环顾四周，我们想知道 “这些海洋生物是如何粘起来的？

And what can we do with the technology?"

我们可以用这种技术做什么？”

And I would argue that we have really a lot of things we can still learn

我认为我们还要从生物和大自然

from biology and from nature.

学习很多。

So what I'd like to encourage you all to do in the future

我想鼓励各位将来

is put down your nonrecyclable laptops and cell phones

放下不可回收的笔记本和手机，

and go out and explore the natural world

走到户外探索大自然，

and then start asking some of your own questions.

然后提出一些你的问题。

Thanks very much.

非常感谢。

(Applause)

（掌声）