Angela Belcher: Using nature to grow batteries

翻译人员: Felix Chen 校对人员: Jenny Yang

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

我想我应该谈一谈自然是如何制造材料的。

I brought along with me an abalone shell.

我带来了一个鲍鱼壳。

这个鲍鱼壳是种生物复合材料，

This abalone shell is a biocomposite material

that's 98 percent by mass calcium carbonate

其中百分之98是碳酸钙

and two percent by mass protein.

百分之二是蛋白质。

然而，它比地质学中相对应的

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

物质要坚硬三千倍。

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

许多人或许用过类似鲍鱼壳这样的结构，

如粉笔。

like chalk.

I've been fascinated by how nature makes materials,

如今我为自然创造材料的方法所深深着迷，

做到这样的精细活

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

过程极度保密。

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

这些材料在结构上

肉眼可见，

但是它们是由纳米级材料组成的。

but they're formed at the nano scale.

They're formed at the nano scale,

它们是由纳米级材料组成的，

and they use proteins that are coded by the genetic level

它们使用由基因层次控制的蛋白质，

这使得它们能构建非常精致的结构。

that allow them to build these really exquisite structures.

因此，我觉得非常让人着迷的是

So something I think is very fascinating is:

如果能赋予非生物结构

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

以生命会发生什么，

like batteries and like solar cells?

比如电池，比如太阳能电池？

What if they had some of the same capabilities

如果它们能有一些鲍鱼壳所拥有的

同样的能力会怎样，

that an abalone shell did,

in terms of being able to build really exquisite structures

能够

在常温常压下

at room temperature and room pressure,

用无毒的化学物质，

using nontoxic chemicals

不添加对环境有害的材料

and adding no toxic materials back into the environment?

构建精致的结构。

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

这就是我曾想到过的愿景。

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

那么，如果你能在皮氏培养皿中培养出电池将会怎样？

或者说，如果你能把基因信息赋予一个电池，

Or what if you could give genetic information to a battery

以便确实能在一定时间内

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

变得更好，

并以一种环境友好的方式进行时会怎样？

in an environmentally friendly way?

回到这个鲍鱼壳，

And so, going back to this abalone shell,

除了存在纳米结构之外，

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

令人着迷的一件事是，

when a male and female abalone get together,

当一只雄性鲍鱼和磁性鲍鱼相遇，

they pass on the genetic information that says,

他们相互传递基因信息

信息中表明，“这是如何构建一个精巧的材料。

"This is how to build an exquisite material.

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

这就是如何在常温常压下，用无毒材料

做到这些的。”

using nontoxic materials."

Same with diatoms, which are shown right here,

与硅藻相同，有着光泽，有着玻璃状结构。

which are glasseous structures.

每次硅藻复制时，

Every time the diatoms replicate,

they give the genetic information that says,

它们给出基因信息，其中表明，

“这就是如何在海洋中

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

有完美纳米结构的玻璃。

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

你能同样进行，并不断重复。”

那么如果你能用太阳能电池或

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

电池做同样的事会怎样？

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

我想说我最喜欢的生物材料是我四岁的孩子。

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

但任何曾有过或了解小孩的人

都知道他们是多么复杂的生物体。

they're incredibly complex organisms.

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

因此，说服他们去

做他们不想做的事，非常困难。

it's very difficult.

当我们思考未来科技时，

So when we think about future technologies,

we actually think of using bacteria and viruses --

我们会想到细菌和病毒的应用，

简单的有机体。

simple organisms.

Can you convince them to work with a new toolbox,

你能让它们使用新的工具箱吗，

以使它们能构建一种

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

对我来说很重要的结构么？

Also, when we think about future technologies,

同样地，我们对未来科技进行思考。

we start with the beginning of Earth.

我们从地球最初开始，

基本上，用了十亿年

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

地球上才开始出现生命。

And very rapidly, they became multi-cellular,

接着很快地就进化成了多细胞生命，

它们能够复制自己，能用光合作用

they could replicate, they could use photosynthesis

as a way of getting their energy source.

作为获取能源的一种方式。

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

但知道500万年前 --

在寒武纪地质时代 --

during the Cambrian geologic time period --

海洋中的生物开始制造坚硬的材料。

that organisms in the ocean started making hard materials.

之前它们制造的都是柔软蓬松的结构。

Before that, they were all soft, fluffy structures.

正是在这一时期内

It was during this time that there was increased calcium,

环境中的钙、铁

iron and silicon in the environment,

硅的含量增加了。

and organisms learned how to make hard materials.

生物学会了如何制作坚硬的材料。

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

所以我希望能够 --

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

确定生物

能与周期表中的其他元素工作。

Now, if you look at biology,

现在，如果查看一下生物，

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

有许多类似DNA、抗体、

蛋白质和核糖体这样你曾听说过的结构，

you've heard about,

这些结构以及是纳米结构了。

that are nanostructured --

因此自然已经给予了我们

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

纳米级的非常精巧的结构。

What if we could harness them

如果我们控制它们

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

让他们不要变成像艾滋病病毒

这样的抗体将会怎样？

但如果我们能让它们为我们

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

建造太阳能电池将会怎样？

这儿有些例子：这是些天然的贝壳。

Here are some examples.

Natural shells, natural biological materials.

它们是天然的生物材料。

The abalone shell here.

这个是鲍鱼壳 -- 如果折断它，

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

会看到它是纳米结构。

硅藻是由二氧化硅组成，

There's diatoms made out of SiO2,

and there are magnetotactic bacteria

他们是趋磁细菌，

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

它们用微小的单极磁体导航。

What all these have in common

这些事物的共同之处是

is these materials are structured at the nano scale,

这些材料的结构都是纳米级的，

它们拥有一个DNA序列

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

这是一个蛋白质序列编码，

that gives them the blueprint

这给了它们一个蓝图

to be able to build these really wonderful structures.

使它们能够构建这些奇妙的结构。

Now, going back to the abalone shell,

现在，回到鲍鱼壳，

鲍鱼用这些蛋白质做成壳。

the abalone makes this shell by having these proteins.

These proteins are very negatively charged.

这些蛋白质带有负电荷。

They can pull calcium out of the environment,

它们能吸收环境中的钙，

放上一层钙，然后是一层碳酸盐，再一层钙一层碳酸盐。

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

这是氨基酸的化学序列

It has the chemical sequences of amino acids which says,

其中表明，“这就是如何构建这种结构。

"This is how to build the structure.

这是要做到这点的DNA序列，

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

蛋白质序列。”

in order to do it."

So an interesting idea is,

一个有意思的想法是，如果你能选择任何材料或是

what if you could take any material you wanted,

周期表中的任何元素，

or any element on the periodic table,

依照DNA序列，

and find its corresponding DNA sequence,

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

然后依照蛋白质序列

建立结构，但不是构建一个鲍鱼壳，将会怎样 --

but not build an abalone shell --

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

通过自然构建某种事物，

这是从未有机会进行的尝试。

这是周期表。

And so here's the periodic table.

我非常喜欢周期表。

I absolutely love the periodic table.

在MIT，大一新生来的第一课，

Every year for the incoming freshman class at MIT,

我都会提供一个周期表，

I have a periodic table made that says,

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

“欢迎来到MIT。现在你进入你的元素了。”

(Laughter)

把它翻过来，是带有PH值的氨基酸

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

with the pH at which they have different charges.

不同的PH值下带有不同的电荷。

And so I give this out to thousands of people.

我把这个发给了数以千计的人。

And I know it says MIT and this is Caltech,

我知道这上面写了MIT，写了加州理工，

但如果有人要的话我还有些额外的。

but I have a couple extra if people want it.

我非常荣幸的是，

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

奥巴马总统今年访问MIT时

造访了我的实验室，

on his visit to MIT,

and I really wanted to give him a periodic table.

我很想给他一张周期表。

我熬夜思索，对我的丈夫说

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

“我怎么才能给奥巴马总统一张周期表呢？

"How do I give President Obama a periodic table?

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

如果他说，‘哦，我已经有一张了’

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

或是‘我已经背下来了’该怎么办？”

(Laughter)

因此他到访我的实验室

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

四处浏览 -- 这是个很棒的访问。

And then afterward, I said,

后来，我说，

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

“先生，我想给你张周期表

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

以备你陷入困境，需要计算分子量时使用。”

(Laughter)

我觉得分子量听起来不像摩尔质量

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

那么呆板。

(Laughter)

他看了看它，

And he looked at it and said,

说到，

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

“谢谢。我会定期看看它的。”

(Laughter)

（笑声）

(Applause)

（掌声）

Later in a lecture that he gave on clean energy,

之后在一次关于清洁能源的演讲中，

he pulled it out and said,

他把它拿出来，说道，

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

“在MIT时有人给了我周期表。”

所以基本上我没有告诉各位的是

So basically what I didn't tell you

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

大约五亿年前，生物就开始制造材料，

大概花了五千万年变得擅长于此。

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

花了五千万年时间

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

学会了完美地制造出鲍鱼壳。

这对研究生来说很难理解

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

“我拥有这个伟大的项目 -- 五千万年。”

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

因此我们不得不找出一种

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

更快速的方式来完成这些。

And so we use a nontoxic virus called M13 bacteriophage,

因此我们使用了一种病毒，

一种名为M13噬菌体的无毒病毒，

用它去感染细菌。

whose job is to infect bacteria.

它有简单的DNA结构，

Well, it has a simple DNA structure

可以剪切、粘贴

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

附加的DNA序列到其中。

这样做后，它允许病毒

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

表达随机的蛋白质序列。

This is pretty easy biotechnology,

这是很简单的生物技术。

and you could basically do this a billion times.

可以这么做个十亿次。

So you can have a billion different viruses

这样就能得到十亿个不同的病毒

它们具有相同的遗传基因，

that are all genetically identical,

but they differ from each other based on their tips,

但它们可以基于它们的标签相互区分，

为一个蛋白质

on one sequence,

编码的序列。

that codes for one protein.

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

现在，收集起所有这些病毒，

可以把它们放入一滴液体中，

you can force them to interact with anything you want

可以强制它们与周期表中的任何元素交互。

on the periodic table.

通过一个选择性进化的过程，

And through a process of selection evolution,

可以从十亿中选出一个符合你期望的病毒，

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

比如长出一个电池或是一个太阳能电池。

like grow a battery or a solar cell.

所以，基本上，病毒不能复制自身，它们需要宿主。

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

一旦有亿万中的一个

Once you find that one out of a billion,

感染了一个细菌，

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

就会产生不计其数的那种

of that particular sequence.

特定序列的复制体。

The other thing that's beautiful about biology

生物学的另一个美妙之处是

is that biology gives you really exquisite structures

生物学可以以一种良好的比例

呈现精致的结构。

with nice link scales.

These viruses are long and skinny,

这些病毒长且瘦，

and we can get them to express the ability

我们能让它们表达生长出一些事物的能力

to grow something like semiconductors

比如半导体

or materials for batteries.

或是制作电池的材料。

这是我们在实验室培育的高能电池。

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

We engineered a virus to pick up carbon nanotubes.

我们让病毒收集碳纳米管。

One part of the virus grabs a carbon nanotube,

病毒的一部分抓住一个碳纳米管。

the other part of the virus has a sequence

另一部分拥有一个

能长出电池的电极材料的序列。

that can grow an electrode material for a battery,

and then it wires itself to the current collector.

然后它把自己缠绕成集电器。

And so through a process of selection evolution,

然后通过一个选择性进化的过程，

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

我们就从一个制造低劣电池的病毒

得到了一个制造良好电池的病毒

to a virus that made a good battery

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

一个制造破纪录的高能电池的病毒

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

这些都是在常温下，实验台上进行的。

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

那个电池去白宫参加过一次记者招待会。

我把它带到这里来了。

and I brought it here.

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

各位能在这个盒子里看到它 -- 亮着的是个LED等。

Now if we could scale this,

如果我们能放大这个，

you could actually use it to run your Prius,

就能用它来

驱动普瑞斯车，

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

这是我的梦想 -- 能驾驶一辆病毒驱动的汽车。

(Laughter)

但基本上 --

But basically you can pull one out of a billion,

能从十亿中选出一个。

and make lots of amplifications to it.

能把它放大许多倍。

Basically, you make an amplification in the lab,

基本上，能在实验室进行放大。

然后让它自组装

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

成一个如电池这样的结构。

We're able to do this also with catalysis.

我们也能通过催化作用做到这些。

This is the example of a photocatalytic splitting of water.

这是光触媒

分离水的例子。

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

我们已经能做到的是

设计一个病毒，能吸收染色分子

to basically take dye-absorbing molecules

并把染色分子在病毒的表面排成一列，

and line them up on the surface of the virus

就像个触须，

so it acts as an antenna,

and you get an energy transfer across the virus.

然后就能让能量转移穿过这些病毒了。

接着我们给它第二段基因

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

以生长出无机材料

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

这能用于把水分离成

氢气和氧气，

that can be used for clean fuels.

氢气和氧气能用作清洁燃料。

I brought an example of that with me today.

今天我带来了一个样本。

My students promised me it would work.

我的学生对我保证说它能运作。

These are virus-assembled nanowires.

这些是由病毒组装的纳米线。

当用光照向它们时，能看到他们在冒着泡泡。

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

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

这样的情况表明，所看到的是氧气正在冒出。

(Applause)

基本上通过控制基因

Basically, by controlling the genes,

you can control multiple materials to improve your device performance.

就能够控制多种材料来改进设备性能。

最后一个例子是太阳能电池。

The last example are solar cells.

也可以这样制造太阳能电池。

You can also do this with solar cells.

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

我们已经能够设计病毒

来收集碳纳米管

and then grow titanium dioxide around them,

然后再外面附着上二氧化钛 --

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

并作为通过设备收集电子的一种方式。

And what we've found is through genetic engineering,

我们的发现是，通过基因工程

we can actually increase the efficiencies of these solar cells

我们能真正的增加

这些太阳能电池的效率

to record numbers

为各种类型的

for these types of dye-sensitized systems.

染色敏化系统记录数字。

And I brought one of those as well,

我也带了一个到这儿来

that you can play around with outside afterward.

稍后各位可以在外面摆弄一下。

这是个基于病毒的太阳能电池。

So this is a virus-based solar cell.

通过进化和选择，

Through evolution and selection,

we took it from an eight percent efficiency solar cell

我们把这个太阳能电池由效能百分之八

变为了百分之十一。

to an 11 percent efficiency solar cell.

So I hope that I've convinced you

我希望我已经让各位相信

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

关于如何让自然制作材料

有许多美好的、有趣的事情要学习--

about how nature makes materials,

and about taking it the next step,

更进一步

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

看看能否你能够推行，

或是利用自然制作材料的方式

来制作一些自然还未被要求制作的东西。

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

Thank you.

谢谢。

(Applause)