Dan Goods: How NASA invented a ventilator for COVID-19 ... in 37 days | TED

Transcriber:

翻译人员: Tingyu Feng 校对人员: Yip Yan Yeung

这是来自美国宇航局（NASA）

位于加利福尼亚州帕萨迪纳 （Pasadena）的喷气推进实验室的视频。

在我身后的是控制中心。

我来给你们看看，因为在 2 月 18 日，

From NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California,

我们将尝试让NASA的 下一个探测器登陆火星。

right behind me is mission control.

这将是有史以来 我们送往火星的最复杂的探测器。

I'm going to let you take a look, because on February 18th,

它上面甚至会有一架直升机。

we're going to attempt to land NASA's next rover to Mars.

喷气推进实验室 是一个了不起的地方，

It's going to be the most sophisticated rover ever sent to the Red Planet.

人们在这里创造 探索宇宙的机械任务。

It's even going to have a helicopter on it.

他们还创造了 环绕地球运行的卫星，

帮助我们了解我们生活的星球。

So JPL is an amazing place,

where people are creating robotic missions to explore the universe.

但今天我要讲的是一些 更接近生活的东西。

They also create satellites that orbit the Earth

我要说的是一个太空工程师团队，

and help us understand this planet that we live on.

他们在仅仅 37 天内就 发明了一款新冠肺炎呼吸机。

But today, I'm going to talk about something a little bit closer to home.

[戴夫·范布伦（Dave Van Buren） 罗伯·曼宁（Rob Manning）]

It’s going to be about a team of space engineers

这一切都开始于这两个人

在喷气推进实验室的餐厅的偶遇。

that invented a COVID-19 ventilator in just 37 days.

那是在疫情开始时，

第一次政府停摆之前。

And it all started when these two people

他们先开始谈论工作，

bumped into each other at the JPL cafeteria.

但随后他们开始讨论 疫情可能在美国产生的影响，

It was right before the very first shutdown

而且可能缺少呼吸机。

when the pandemic started.

他们开始思考一个问题， 一个非常重要的问题：

They started to talk about work,

but then they started to talk about what COVID might do in the United States,

我现在做的

是我能做的最重要的事吗?

and that there might be a shortage of ventilators.

And they started to ask the question, a really powerful, important question:

他们回家了，一切都停工了，

但戴夫一直在想这个问题。

Is what I'm doing right this moment

事实上，那个周末， 他组建了一个团队，

the most important thing that I could be doing?

他找来了一些资金，

Well, they went home, everything got shut down,

周一下午，

but Dave couldn't get that question out of his head.

他们把一位医生 请来了喷气推进实验室。

In fact, that weekend, he assembled a team,

这位医生几十年来 一直在研究呼吸机，

跟他们说了呼吸机的事， 什么有用，什么没用，

he found some funding,

and on Monday afternoon,

they ended up having a doctor come to JPL

以及新冠肺炎的具体特征。

who had been working on ventilators for decades,

现在，你可以想象 这群工程师在问他们自己，

told them all about ventilators -- what worked, what didn't work,

“我们是制造呼吸机的合适人选吗?”

and what was really specific to COVID-19.

在和医生交谈了更多之后， 他们开始意识到，是的，

Now, you can imagine that this group of engineers are asking themselves,

呼吸机正是感知和回应身体 （词同“物体”）、人体的器械。

"Are we the right people to be making ventilators?"

Well, after talking with the doctor more, they started to realize that yes,

就我们而言，我们创造了能够感知 和回应其他物体，

ventilators are things that are sensing and responding to bodies, human bodies.

比如火星或木星的工具。

呼吸机需要能够在 非常恶劣的环境中工作。

In our case, we create instruments that sense and respond to other bodies,

好吧，我们创造了去外太空的东西。

like Mars or Jupiter.

呼吸机只要能正常工作，

Ventilators need to be able to work in really harsh environments.

因为如果它们不起作用， 有人可能会死。

在我们的例子中， 我们把东西送到其他星球，

Well, we create things that go to outer space.

它们一到那里， 我们就不能跑过去修理他们，

Ventilators also -- they just have to work,

because if they don't work, someone might die.

所以我们有一种测试的文化， 通过测试来证明

In our case, we send things to other planets,

在我们发射它们之前 一切都能正常工作。

and when they get there, we can't go there and fix them,

呼吸机，它们真的很复杂，

so we have a culture of testing and testing to prove to ourselves

而且真的很贵。

that everything can work before we send them.

有很多不同的零件，

它们可以做很多不同类型的事情。

Now, ventilators -- they're really complicated,

所以研究小组决定 不要做复杂的呼吸机，

and they are really expensive.

他们要做的是专门针对新冠的事情，

There's lots of different parts,

and they can do a lot of different types of things.

这将使它更便宜，使用更少的部件。

So the team decided that instead of doing a complicated ventilator,

如果医院有很多呼吸机，

they were going to do something that was specific just to COVID-19

感染了新冠病毒的人可以使用它们，

and that would make it less expensive, use less parts.

我们可以省下昂贵而精密的呼吸机

And if a bunch of these were in the hospital,

给那些真正需要的人。

the people that have COVID could be using them,

他们最后做的是制定了次级标准。

and we could save the really expensive, sophisticated ventilators

标准是：无害——

for those people who really, really needed them.

不使用任何

And so what they ended up doing is that they made subcriteria.

目前呼吸机供应链上的呼吸机部件；

And the criteria was: do no harm --

确保我们尽可能少用零件；

don't use any ventilator pieces

确保我们能把这些零件 送到世界上任何地方，

that are in the supply chain of current ventilators;

因为我们希望 生活在不同的国家的人

make sure that we use as few parts as really necessary;

都能够做出同样的东西；

然后让它易于使用，

make sure that we can get those parts anywhere in the world,

因为如果它不容易使用， 人们就不会使用它。

because we want people in lots of different countries

我当时呆在家里， 因为我没有参与这个项目，

to be able to make these same things;

我只是在家工作，

and then make it easy to use,

because if it's not easy to use, people just aren't going to use it.

然后我收到了戴夫·范·布伦 发来的一封非常特别的邮件，

Well, I was sitting at home because I wasn't part of this project,

问我是否愿意成为 他们的团队文化专家。

and I'm just kind of working from home,

and then I got this really unusual email by way of Dave Van Buren,

我从未听说过团队文化学家。

我其实领导过一队 艺术家和设计师，

asking me if I'd like to be a team culturalist.

我们帮助人们思考他们的想法。

但我想，“你知道吗？ 我愿意尽力帮你，

I had never heard of a team culturalist before.

I actually lead a team of artists and designers,

让我加入帮忙吧。”

这是喷气推进实验室， 真的很大，

and we help people think through their thinking.

但他们只让大概 200 个人 呆在实验室里，

But I thought, "You know what? I'm going to do anything to help.

其中只有几个人在研究呼吸机。

Let me go in and be of help."

And so this is JPL, it's a really big place,

但这，这是我 第一次来的时候看到的。

but they only let around 200 people on lab,

到处都是闪烁的灯光、 手写的标语、

and only a few of those were people working on the ventilator.

地上的一条线 和一张报名表......

But this -- this is what I came to when I first got there.

这真的很奇怪。

我意识到这个项目的人 在不同的房间里，

There's flashing lights, handwritten signs all over the place,

他们看不见对方。

a line on the ground and a sign-up sheet ...

所以我搜刮了所有 在家工作的人的

It was really strange.

摄像头、电脑和电缆，

And I realized the people on the project were in different rooms,

建立一个系统， 让每个人都能看到彼此。

and they couldn't see each other.

So I scavenged cameras and computers and cables

在这个过程中， 我意识到这是一个非常重要的时刻。

from all the computers of people that are working at home

这是一个历史性的重要时刻，

to be able to set up a system so everyone could see each other.

所以我需要拍下 所有这些不同的时刻。

And in the process, I realized that this is a really important moment.

所以我拍下了 所有这些特殊时刻的照片，

This is really a historically important moment,

有要成功的时候， 也有失败的时候。

and so I need to be taking pictures of all these different moments.

我把他们发给了团队的其他成员，

And so I was able to get pictures of all these special moments

因为真的，大约只有 20% 的 团队成员身在喷气推进实验室。

when things first started to work, but also when things didn't work,

其余的人都在家里工作，

对发生的事情并没有实感。

and I was able to send them to the rest of the team,

所以这对他们来说 是一种很好的方式，

because, really, only about 20 percent of the team was at JPL.

让他们觉得自己是团队的一部分。

The rest were at home working

现在，一切都进展神速。

and not really feeling connected to what was going on.

举个例子，总工程师说，

So this was a really great way for them to feel like they were part of the team.

“我们需要一个呼吸机界面，

必须对医生来说非常容易使用。

Now, everything was going super fast.

你能在明天早上 6 点前完成吗?”（笑）

And, just an example, the chief engineer said, "Hey,

we need an interface for this ventilator

所以我们的团队在晚上 8 点 召集了全国各地的医生。

that's going to be super easy for doctors to use.

And could you get it done by 6am tomorrow?" (Laughs)

我们和他们在一起， 晚上 10 点完成，

问他们一堆问题。

And so our team called up a whole bunch of doctors all over the country at 8pm.

实际上，一个设计师花了 一整晚的时间来做这个，

We got together with them, got done at 10pm,

到了早上 6 点， 他设计完了这个界面。

asking them a bunch of questions.

工程师们所经历的一切

And literally, a designer ended up spending all night working on this,

都是意料之中的事，

因为他们试图创造一些 他们从未想过的东西。

and by 6am, he had an interface done.

他们想让所有的部件都运转起来，

Now, this was just par for the course

让软件与零件一起兼容……

for what the engineers were going through,

但一直以来，我们都在和 不同的医生合作。

because they were trying to create something they'd never thought of before.

中间的人是古莱弗里奇医生 （Dr. Gurevitch）。

They were trying to get all the parts to work,

他是第一个告诉团队 呼吸机是什么的人。

get the software to work with parts ...

But the entire time, we were working with various doctors.

坐在他旁边电脑旁的人是 莱文医生（Dr. Levin）。

The person in the middle is Dr. Gurevitch.

他在纽约的西奈山医院 （Mount Sinai Hospital）工作，

He's the person who first told the team about what a ventilator was.

那里是新冠疫情最开始的中心。

The person in the computer next to him, his name is Dr. Levin.

他会穿着手术服从重症监护室出来，

He's at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York,

打开摄像头，开始评论 我们创造的东西。

and that was the epicenter of COVID at the very beginning.

所以，在他们第一次了解 呼吸机是什么的 37 天后，

And he would literally come out of the ICU in his [scrubs]

and get on the webcam and start to critique what we're creating.

他们彻夜未眠，

到了早上，他们终于完成了

So, 37 days after they first learned what a ventilator was,

他们的第一个呼吸机原型机。

他们得赶紧打包，

they stayed up the entire night,

因为他们会把它送到纽约，

and in the morning, they had finally finished

给西奈山医院的莱文医生，

their first working prototype of a ventilator.

在那里进行人体测试案例，

They had to hurry up and package it up,

在那里他们可以验证 呼吸机是否正常工作，

because then they were going to send it to New York,

to Dr. Levin at Mount Sinai Hospital,

结果是：呼吸机是正常运作的。

每个人都超级兴奋，

where they tested it on this human testing case

但他们现在更兴奋，

因为全世界有 27 个组织

where they were able to see whether or not the ventilator worked,

正在创造这些东西。

and it worked.

Everyone was super excited,

他们在尼日利亚、巴西、 印度和其他几十个国家。

but they're even more excited today,

because there are 27 organizations all around the world

这一切都始于 一个简单而有力的问题:

that are creating these things.

They're in Nigeria, in Brazil, in India, in dozens of other countries.

我现在做的

是我应该做的最重要的事情吗？

And it all started with that simple, powerful question:

Is what I'm doing right now

the most important thing I should be doing?