Jessica Green: Good germs make healthy buildings

Translator: Joseph Geni Reviewer: Morton Bast

翻译人员: illusion Hung 校对人员: SHI CHEN

Everything is covered in invisible ecosystems

一切事物均被肉眼不可见的生态系统覆盖

made of tiny lifeforms: bacteria, viruses and fungi.

其组成为微小的 生命形式：细菌、病毒和霉菌

Our desks, our computers, our pencils, our buildings

我们的书桌、计算机、笔、建筑

all harbor resident microbial landscapes.

全是微生物的栖息地

As we design these things, we could be thinking

当我们设计这些物品时，不妨思考一下

about designing these invisible worlds,

关于这些隐形世界的设计

and also thinking about how they interact

同时思考它们如何与

with our personal ecosystems.

我们个人的生态系统互动

Our bodies are home to trillions of microbes,

我们的身体是亿万个微生物的住所

and these creatures define who we are.

这些生物定义了我们

The microbes in your gut can influence your weight and your moods.

肠道中的微生物可影响你的体重和心情

The microbes on your skin can help boost your immune system.

皮肤上的微生物有助于提升你的免疫系统

The microbes in your mouth can freshen your breath,

口中的微生物可使你口气清新

or not,

或正好相反

and the key thing is that our personal ecosystems

最重要的是，我们个人的生态系统

interact with ecosystems on everything we touch.

与我们接触的一切生态系统间的交互作用

So, for example, when you touch a pencil,

因此，例如，当你触摸一支笔时

microbial exchange happens.

即发生微生物交换

If we can design the invisible ecosystems in our surroundings,

如果我们能设计周遭的隐形生态系统

this opens a path to influencing

将开启一条途径

our health in unprecedented ways.

以前所未有的方式影响我们的健康

I get asked all of the time from people,

经常有人问我

"Is it possible to really design microbial ecosystems?"

“设计微生物生态系统是否确实可行？”

And I believe the answer is yes.

我认为答案是肯定的

I think we're doing it right now,

我认为我们此刻正在进行这件事

but we're doing it unconsciously.

但处于不自觉状态

I'm going to share data with you

我想与大家分享一些信息

from one aspect of my research focused on architecture

来自我对建筑的研究之一

that demonstrates how, through both conscious

显示我们如何藉由有意识

and unconscious design,

及无意识的设计

we're impacting these invisible worlds.

影响这些肉眼不可见的世界

This is the Lillis Business Complex at the University of Oregon,

这是奥勒冈大学Lillis商学综合大楼

and I worked with a team of architects and biologists

我与一个由 建筑师和生物学家组成的团队合作

to sample over 300 rooms in this building.

在这栋建筑中的300多个房间取样

We wanted to get something like a fossil record of the building,

我们希望得到 类似建筑物化石纪录的数据

and to do this, we sampled dust.

为了达成这个目标，我们搜集灰尘样本

From the dust, we pulled out bacterial cells,

我们从灰尘中分离出细菌细胞

broke them open, and compared their gene sequences.

将它们打破，比较其中的基因序列

This means that people in my group

这意味着我的团队成员

were doing a lot of vacuuming during this project.

在这个计划中进行了许多吸尘工作

This is a picture of Tim, who,

照片中的人是Tim

right when I snapped this picture, reminded me,

就在拍摄这张照片的当下，他提醒我－

he said, "Jessica, the last lab group I worked in

他说，“Jessica，在上个研究团队中”

I was doing fieldwork in the Costa Rican rainforest,

“我的工作是 在哥斯达黎加雨林进行田野调查”

and things have changed dramatically for me."

“对我来说 目前的处境简直是天壤之别”

So I'm going to show you now first what we found in the offices,

因此我准备向大家展示 我们在办公室中的第一项发现

and we're going to look at the data through a visualization tool

我们将藉由某种视觉工具浏览这些数据

that I've been working on in partnership with Autodesk.

这是我和Autodesk （3D软件设计公司）长期合作的成果

The way that you look at this data is,

浏览数据的方法是

first, look around the outside of the circle.

先观察圆圈外围

You'll see broad bacterial groups,

你将看见许多不同的菌落

and if you look at the shape of this pink lobe,

如果观察这个粉红叶片状图形

it tells you something about the relative abundance of each group.

它将显示每种菌落的相对数量

So at 12 o'clock, you'll see that offices have a lot of

因此在12点钟方向 你看见办公室存在许多

alphaproteobacteria, and at one o'clock

甲型变形菌，在1点钟方向

you'll see that bacilli are relatively rare.

你看见杆菌数量十分稀少

Let's take a look at what's going on in different space types in this building.

我们看看建筑中不同类型空间的情况

If you look inside the restrooms,

如果观察休息室

they all have really similar ecosystems,

它们的生态系统均十分相似

and if you were to look inside the classrooms,

如果观察教室

those also have similar ecosystems.

它们亦拥有相似的生态系统

But if you look across these space types,

但如果纵观这些空间类型

you can see that they're fundamentally different

可看出它们彼此间

from one another.

截然不同

I like to think of bathrooms like a tropical rainforest.

我喜欢将浴室想成热带雨林

I told Tim, "If you could just see the microbes,

我对Tim说，“如果你能看见微生物”

it's kind of like being in Costa Rica. Kind of."

“感觉就像身处哥斯达黎加，多少吧”

And I also like to think of offices as being a temperate grassland.

我也喜欢将办公室想成温带草原

This perspective is a really powerful one for designers,

这个观点对设计师来说十分有用

because you can bring on principles of ecology,

因为你可套用生态学原则

and a really important principle of ecology is dispersal,

生态学中一个十分重要的原则就是分布

the way organisms move around.

即有机体的传播方式

We know that microbes are dispersed around by people

我们知道微生物藉由人类

and by air.

和空气传播

So the very first thing we wanted to do in this building

因此我们希望在这栋建筑中做的第一件事

was look at the air system.

就是观察空气系统

Mechanical engineers design air handling units

机械工程师设计空调系统

to make sure that people are comfortable,

确保人们感到舒适

that the air flow and temperature is just right.

空气流通、气温恰到好处

They do this using principles of physics and chemistry,

他们利用物理和化学原理进行这项工作

but they could also be using biology.

但也可利用生物学

If you look at the microbes

如果观察这栋建筑中

in one of the air handling units in this building,

某个空调系统里的微生物

you'll see that they're all very similar to one another.

将发现其中生态均十分相似

And if you compare this to the microbes

如果将它与

in a different air handling unit,

不同空调系统中的微生物比较

you'll see that they're fundamentally different.

将发现两者截然不同

The rooms in this building are like islands in an archipelago,

这建筑中的房间就像孤立群岛中的岛屿

and what that means is that mechanical engineers

这意味着机械工程师

are like eco-engineers, and they have the ability

如同生态工程师，有能力

to structure biomes in this building the way that they want to.

以他们想要的方式 建构这栋建筑中的生物群落

Another facet of how microbes get around is by people,

另一个传播微生物的方式是藉由人类

and designers often cluster rooms together

设计师通常将房间设计在一处

to facilitate interactions among people,

促进人们的交流

or the sharing of ideas, like in labs and in offices.

或分享彼此的看法，就像实验室和办公室

Given that microbes travel around with people,

考虑微生物随着人们四处传播

you might expect to see rooms that are close together

你或许预期相距不远的房间

have really similar biomes.

存在十分相似的生物群落

And that is exactly what we found.

这正是我们发现的结果

If you look at classrooms right adjacent to one another,

如果观察彼此相邻的教室

they have very similar ecosystems,

它们拥有十分相似的生态系统

but if you go to an office

但如果观察

that is a farther walking distance away,

与其相距甚远的办公室

the ecosystem is fundamentally different.

其中的生态系统则大不相同

And when I see the power that dispersal has

当我发现促使

on these biogeographic patterns,

生物地理学分布的力量之后

it makes me think that it's possible

意识到或许可藉此

to tackle really challenging problems,

解决一些充满挑战的问题

like hospital-acquired infections.

例如医院内感染

I believe this has got to be, in part,

我认为其中部分原因必定在于

a building ecology problem.

建筑物的生态问题

All right, I'm going to tell you one more story about this building.

好，我将告诉大家 更多关于这栋建筑的故事

I am collaborating with Charlie Brown.

我与Charlie Brown合作

He's an architect,

他是一名建筑师

and Charlie is deeply concerned about global climate change.

Charlie十分关切全球气候变化

He's dedicated his life to sustainable design.

毕生致力于永续建筑设计

When he met me and realized that it was possible for him

当他遇上我之后，意识到自己有机会

to study in a quantitative way

以量化方式进行研究

how his design choices impacted

了解他的设计选择如何影响

the ecology and biology of this building,

这栋建筑的生态和生物系统

he got really excited, because it added a new dimension to what he did.

他十分兴奋，因为 这为他的工作增添一个新层面

He went from thinking just about energy

他从仅思考能源问题

to also starting to think about human health.

转为同时将人类健康纳入考虑

He helped design some of the air handling systems

他协助设计了一些

in this building and the way it was ventilated.

这栋建筑的空调系统及通风方式

So what I'm first going to show you is

因此我首先要展示的是

air that we sampled outside of the building.

我们从户外取样的空气

What you're looking at is a signature of bacterial communities

图中显示的是户外空气中的细菌群落

in the outdoor air, and how they vary over time.

以及它们如何随时间改变

Next I'm going to show you what happened

接下来我将向大家展示

when we experimentally manipulated classrooms.

我们以教室进行实验的情形

We blocked them off at night

我们于夜间将它关闭

so that they got no ventilation.

因此教室无法通风

A lot of buildings are operated this way,

许多建筑采用这种方式

probably where you work,

或许你的工作地点正是如此

and companies do this to save money on their energy bill.

公司藉由这种方式节省电费

What we found is that these rooms remained relatively stagnant

我们发现这些房间的空气几乎静止不动

until Saturday, when we opened the vents up again.

直到我们周六再次将它打开

When you walked into those rooms,

当你走进那些房间时

they smelled really bad,

气味十分难闻

and our data suggests that it had something to do with

我们的数据显示

leaving behind the airborne bacterial soup

这和空气中残留的菌落有关

from people the day before.

来自前一天于此活动的人们

Contrast this to rooms

相较于

that were designed using a sustainable passive design strategy

采用被动式永续策略设计的房间

where air came in from the outside through louvers.

户外空气可由百叶窗进入

In these rooms, the air tracked the outdoor air relatively well,

这些房间的空气成分与户外空气极为相似

and when Charlie saw this, he got really excited.

目赌这个结果时，Charlie非常兴奋

He felt like he had made a good choice

他感到自己藉由设计

with the design process

做了一个好选择

because it was both energy efficient

因为这不仅符合能源效率需求

and it washed away the building's resident microbial landscape.

也能带走残留在建筑中的微生物

The examples that I just gave you are about architecture,

我刚刚展示的是关于建筑的例子

but they're relevant to the design of anything.

但这和任何设计都息息相关

Imagine designing with the kinds of microbes that we want

想象我们希望设计的微生物种类

in a plane

在飞机上

or on a phone.

或手机上

There's a new microbe, I just discovered it.

我不久前发现一种新型微生物

It's called BLIS, and it's been shown

名为BLIS，研究证明

to both ward off pathogens

它不但能抵御病原体

and give you good breath.

也能使你口气清新

Wouldn't it be awesome if we all had BLIS on our phones?

如果我们手机上都有BLIS，不是很棒吗？

A conscious approach to design,

根据意识进行的设计

I'm calling it bioinformed design,

我称之为生物信息设计 （bioinformed design）

and I think it's possible.

我认为这是可行的

Thank you.

谢谢

(Applause)

（掌声）