This scientist makes ears out of apples | Andrew Pelling

翻译人员: Conway Ye 校对人员: Haoliang Chen

I've got a confession.

坦白地说，

I love looking through people's garbage.

我喜欢翻看别人丢弃的垃圾。

Now, it's not some creepy thing.

这可不是什么怪癖。

I'm usually just looking for old electronics,

我通常只是寻找旧的电子器件，

stuff I can take to my workshop and hack.

那些我可以带回工作室进行改装的东西。

I do have a fetish for CD-ROM drives.

我尤其痴迷于光盘驱动器。

Each one's got three different motors,

每一个驱动器都有三个不同的马达，

so now you can build things that move.

这样你就能组装一些可以动的东西了。

There's switches so you can turn things on and off.

驱动器还有开关， 让你能够实现启动和关闭功能。

There's even a freaking laser,

它甚至还有一个非同寻常的激光器，

so you can make a cool robot into an awesome robot.

让你能把一个看起来还不错的 机器人变得炫酷无比。

Now, I've built a lot of stuff out of garbage,

我已经用废弃材料造出了许多东西，

and some of these things have even been kind of useful.

而且其中一些还是很有用的。

But here's the thing,

不过事实上，

for me, garbage is just a chance to play,

对我来说，废品只是提供了一个玩转的机会，

to be creative and build things to amuse myself.

让我富有创造力，打造自娱自乐的东西。

This is what I love doing, so I just made it part of my day job.

这是我的兴趣所在， 所以我把它融入了我的一部分日常工作。

I lead a university-based biological research lab,

我带领着一个大学的生物研究实验室，

where we value curiosity and exploration above all else.

我们把好奇心和探究精神摆在首位。

We aren't focused on any particular problem,

我们不专注于任何特定的问题，

and we're not trying to solve any particular disease.

也没有尝试去解决任何特定的疾病。

This is just a place where people can come

这只是一个人们可以来

and ask fascinating questions and find answers.

提出奇妙的问题并找到答案的地方。

And I realized a long time ago

很久以前我就意识到，

that if I challenge people to build the equipment they need

如果我挑战别人用我找到的废品

out of the garbage I find,

造出他们需要的设备，

it's a great way to foster creativity.

这是一种很好的培养创造力的方式。

And what happened

后来，

was that artists and scientists from around the world

全世界的艺术家和科学家们

started coming to my lab.

开始纷纷来到我的实验室。

And it's not just because we value unconventional ideas,

并不只是因为我们重视新奇的想法，

it's because we test and validate them

更是因为我们用科学的精确性

with scientific rigor.

检测并证实那些想法。

So one day I was hacking something, I was taking it apart,

有一天我正在拆解东西，

and I had this sudden idea:

我突然产生了这样的想法：

Could I treat biology like hardware?

我能不能把生物体当作硬件？

Could I dismantle a biological system,

我能不能拆分一个生物系统，

混合并配对拆分出来的部分，

mix and match the parts

and then put it back together in some new and creative way?

然后用全新的创造性的方式把它重新拼装？

My lab started working on this,

于是我的实验室开始了相关的研究，

我想给你们展示一下成果。

and I want to show you the result.

Can any of you guys tell me what fruit this is?

你们有谁能够告诉我这是什么水果吗？

观众：苹果！

Audience: Apple!

Andrew Pelling: That's right -- it's an apple.

安德鲁·佩林：没错——这是个苹果。

Now, I actually want you to notice as well

我现在也需要你们注意，

that this is a lot redder than most apples.

它比其他苹果要红得多。

And that's because we grew human cells into it.

原因是我们在其中植入了人类细胞。

We took a totally innocent Macintosh apple,

我们拿了一个纯正的麦金塔苹果 （译者注：苹果公司早期一款个人电脑），

removed all the apple cells and DNA

移除所有的苹果细胞和DNA，

and then implanted human cells.

再植入人类细胞。

And what we're left with after removing all the apple cells

移除全部苹果细胞后，

is this cellulose scaffold.

剩下的是纤维素骨架。

This is the stuff that gives plants their shape and texture.

正是纤维素保证了植物的形状和质感。

And these little holes that you can see,

还有你们看到的这些小孔，

this is where all the apple cells used to be.

就是苹果细胞原来所在的地方。

So then we come along,

然后我们继续试验，

we implant some mammalian cells that you can see in blue.

植入了一些哺乳动物细胞， 你们可以看到是蓝色的。

What happens is, these guys start multiplying

接下来，它们开始繁殖，

and they fill up this entire scaffold.

并充满了整个骨架空隙。

As weird as this is,

听起来有些不可思议，

it's actually really reminiscent of how our own tissues are organized.

这的确能使我们联想到 人体的组织排列方式。

And we found in our pre-clinical work

我们在临床前试验时发现，

that you can implant these scaffolds into the body,

你可以把这些纤维素骨架植入体内，

and the body will send in cells and a blood supply

而身体会提供细胞和血液供应

and actually keep these things alive.

来维持其生命活动。

This is the point when people started asking me,

就在这个时候人们开始问我，

“安德鲁，你能从苹果中制造出人体部位吗？”

"Andrew, can you make body parts out of apples?"

And I'm like, "You've come to the right place."

我答道： “你来对地方了。”

（笑声）

(Laughter)

I actually brought this up with my wife.

我也跟我的老婆提起过这件事，

She's a musical instrument maker,

她是一位乐器制造家，

and she does a lot of wood carving for a living.

也把制作木雕当成一种职业。

So I asked her,

所以我问她，

"Could you, like, literally carve some ears

“你可以为我们用苹果

雕刻出一些耳朵吗？”

out of an apple for us?"

And she did.

她真的做到了。

So I took her ears to the lab.

后来我带着她雕刻的耳朵去了实验室。

We then started preparing them.

我们开始筹备实验。

Yeah, I know.

是的，我知道（这看起来很惊悚）。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

It's a good lab, man.

伙计们，这可是个很棒的实验室。

（笑声）

(Laughter)

And then we grew cells on them.

之后我们在上面培植细胞。

结果是这样的。

And this is the result.

听我说， 我的实验室并不参与制造耳朵的生意。

Listen, my lab is not in the ear-manufacturing business.

People have actually been working on this for decades.

人们已经研究这一项目几十年了。

问题在于：

Here's the issue:

commercial scaffolds can be really expensive and problematic,

商业化的骨架组织价格极高， 而且问题重重。

because they're sourced from proprietary products,

因为它们来源于专利产品，

animals or cadavers.

动物或尸体。

We used an apple and it cost pennies.

我们只用了一个几分钱的苹果。

What's also really cool here

更炫酷的是，

is it's not that hard to make these things.

制造这些东西并不是很难。

The equipment you need can be built from garbage,

你所需要的设备可以由废品打造，

and the key processing step only requires soap and water.

而且关键的加工步骤只需要肥皂和水。

So what we did was put all the instructions online as open source.

于是，我们把制作教程公开上传到网上。

And then we founded a mission-driven company,

然后我们成立了一家身负使命的公司，

and we're developing kits to make it easier

旨在开发成套的工具，

for anyone with a sink and a soldering iron

让任何有水槽和焊铁的人

to make these things at home.

能够很方便的在家完成这些。

What I'm really curious about is if one day,

我真正好奇的是会不会有一天，

it will be possible to repair, rebuild and augment our own bodies

人们有可能修复、改造、 强化我们自己的身体，

with stuff we make in the kitchen.

用到的只是我们厨房里的材料。

好，说到厨房，

Speaking of kitchens,

here's some asparagus.

这是一些芦笋。

They're tasty, and they make your pee smell funny.

它们很可口，不过会让你的尿液有股怪味。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

Now, I was in my kitchen, and I was noticing

有一次，我在我的厨房里发现，

当你观察芦笋茎秆那一端（的截面），

that when you look down the stalks of these asparagus,

what you can see are all these tiny little vessels.

你会看到这些细小的导管。

And when we image them in the lab,

而当我们在实验室里观察它们时，

you can see how the cellulose forms these structures.

你会发现纤维素是如何形成这些结构的。

This image reminds me of two things:

这张图让我想到了两样东西。

our blood vessels

我们的血管，

and the structure and organization of our nerves and spinal cord.

和我们的神经和脊髓的结构组织。

So here's the question:

那么问题来了：

Can we grow axons and neurons down these channels?

我们能否沿着这些通道 培植神经轴突或神经元呢?

Because if we can,

如果我们可以实现，

then maybe we can use asparagus to form new connections

也许我们就能用芦笋来形成全新的节点，

between the ends of damaged and severed nerves.

连接损伤或切断的神经末梢。

Or maybe even a spinal cord.

或者甚至可以是脊髓。

Don't get me wrong --

不要误会——

this is exceptionally challenging

这非常具有挑战性，

and really hard work to do,

而且极其难操作，

and we are not the only ones working on this.

并不是只有我们正在研究这方面内容。

But we are the only ones using asparagus.

但只有我们在使用芦笋。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

Right now, we've got really promising pilot data.

如今，我们已经取得了 具备可行性的实验数据，

And we're working with tissue engineers

正在和人体组织工程师和

神经外科医生合作，

and neurosurgeons

来找出其中的可能性。

to find out what's actually possible.

So listen, all of the work I've shown you,

听我说，我向你们展示的所有工作，

the stuff that I've built that's all around me on this stage

我身边所有这些自己造出来的东西，

and the other projects my lab is involved in

还有我的实验室参与的其他项目，

都是我玩转你们丢的垃圾的直接结果。

are all a direct result of me playing with your garbage.

Play -- play is a key part of my scientific practice.

玩转——玩转是我科学实践的关键。

It's how I train my mind to be unconventional and to be creative

它能训练我的大脑突破常规，富有创意，

and to decide to make human apple ears.

让我决定制作人类的苹果耳朵。

So, the next time any of you are looking at some old,

所以，下一次当你们看到一些老旧的，

broken-down, malfunctioning, piece-of-crap technology,

破损的，不好用的， 废铜烂铁一样的科技产品，

I want you to think of me.

我希望你们能想起我。

Because I want it.

因为我需要它们。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

Seriously, please find any way to get in touch with me,

说真的，请想尽一切方法联系我，

and let's see what we can build.

看看我们能造出什么东西。

Thank you.

谢谢。

(Applause)

（掌声）