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

Translator: Hiroko Kawano Reviewer: Tanya Cushman

譯者: Sydney Fu 審譯者: Helen Chang

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

我想邀請各位跟我 來一趟野外考察之旅

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

帶你們全部一起去海灘

and so enjoy the sea air and the salt spray.

享受一下海風和鹽霧

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

然後一起下到海水邊

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

你會發現海浪正打著我們

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

要原地不動真的很難

But now, look down,

但，現在往下看

and what you're going to see

你會發現

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

石頭被海洋生物包覆著

that are just staying there in place, no problem.

牠們一動也不動

一點問題也沒有

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

原來，如果你想在 非常困苦的環境生存

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

製造黏液的能力 將決定你使否能夠存活

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

現在我來介紹一下 這個故事中的幾位主角

just a few of them.

這邊講幾個就好

So these are mussels,

這些是河蚌

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

你會發現牠們包覆了石頭

and what they've done is made adhesives,

牠們製造黏液黏在石頭上

and they're sticking down on the rocks,

and they're sticking to each other, actually.

而牠們也相互黏著

So they're hunkered down together as a group.

全部躲在一起

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

這張是牡蠣礁石的特寫照

and oysters, they're amazing.

牡蠣很奇妙

What they do is they cement to each other,

牠們彼此緊黏

and they build these huge, extensive reef systems.

並打造這些巨大、 廣闊的礁石系統

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

它們可以長達數公里、 深達數公尺

and arguably, they are the most dominant influence

他們對沿岸海洋生態系的運作

on how healthy any coastal marine ecosystem is going to be

可說是有最重大影響

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

因為牠們時常過濾海水

they're holding sand and dirt in place.

把沙塵和水分開

Actually, other species live inside of these reefs.

其他生物其實也住在這些礁石裡

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

再來，想看看 如果暴風雨來襲會怎樣?

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

如果暴風雨來臨

會先打到這好幾英里長的礁石

the coast behind it is going to be protected.

而後面的海岸會被保護住

So they're really quite influential.

所以它們頗重要的

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

如果你有去過礁石海岸

全世界其實都差不多

you're probably familiar with what barnacles look like.

你可能很熟悉藤壺的長相

And so what these animals do -

這些動物──

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

其實還有很多其他的動物， 這裡只講了三個──

牠們製造黏著劑

is they make adhesives,

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

彼此相黏，並黏著石頭

然後建立群落

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

這樣一來，他們得到許多生存優勢

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

其中一個優勢是

個體受到亂流 及其他環境損傷的影響較小

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

So they're all hunkered down there.

所以牠們一起在那裡躲著

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

其他的優勢也包括安全

因為這麼做也幫他們遠離狩獵者

because it also helps you keep away the predators,

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

因爲，假設一下

一隻海鷗想把你叼起來吃掉

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

黏在一起便使海鷗比較難抓

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

另一點是有助於有效繁衍

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

想像一下， 當藤壺先生和藤壺太太決定說：

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

「是生小寶寶的時候了」

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

我先不告訴你他們怎麼做的

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

但當牠們覺得時候到了

it's a lot easier,

住在旁邊比較方便 繁衍效率也比較高

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

So we want to understand how they do this:

我們想了解牠們如何做到， 如何黏在一起

How do they stick?

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

我不能告訴你所有的細節

because we're still trying to figure it out,

因為我們還在研究

but let me give you a little flavor

但我想先讓你們看一些我們在做的事

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

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

這張圖片 是我們實驗室中的一個水族系統

and everything in the image is part of the system,

圖中所有的東西都是系統的一環

and so what we do is we keep -

我們做的就是──

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

看得到玻璃箱底部有一些河蚌──

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

我們將水冷卻，讓光線循環

we actually have turbulence in the system

我們也讓系統有亂流

because the animals make more adhesives for us

因為當水流不穩定時

when the water is turbulent.

這些動物可以為我們 製造多一點黏著劑

So we induce them to make the adhesive,

我們誘導他們製造黏液

we collect it, we study it.

並收集這些黏液做研究

牠們現在在這裡，印第安納州

They're here in Indiana;

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

但就牠們所知 牠們身處於二月的緬因州

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

就我們看來，牠們頗快樂的

And then we also work with oysters,

我們也研究牡蠣

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

上方的圖片 是個在南卡羅蘭納州的小礁石

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

我們最感興趣的是 牠們如何貼著彼此

how they connect.

如何互相連結

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

你在下方的圖片可以看到

有兩隻牡蠣互相黏著

We want to know what's in between,

我們想知道牠們中間有什麼

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

以我們會常常把他們分開 然後觀察

and in the next series of images we have here,

在下一組圖片可以看到

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

下方的圖片有兩個殼

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

一個動物的殼和另一個動物的殼

and the cement's in between.

還有他們中間的黏著物

If you look at the image on the right,

如果你看右邊的圖

what you can maybe see

你可能會看見

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

每個動物的殼中都存著結構

but then, the cement actually looks different.

但黏著物看起來就不一樣

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

所以我們用了有的沒的 生物、化學儀器

來了解這裡面是什麼

to understand what's going on in there,

and what we're finding is the structures are different

我們發現它們的結構不同

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

它們的化學成分也不一樣

而這頗有趣的

And in this picture -

再來這張圖片

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

在告訴你們這是什麼之前

我想先講一下──

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

你們知道卡通《魔法校車》嗎？

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

或《奇幻旅程》， 如果你年紀較長的話？

And you remember, they had characters

那你可能記得這些卡通

that they would shrink down to these microscopic levels,

會把裡面的角色縮成微粒般

and then they would sort of swirl in

然後在一番天旋地轉之後

and swim around and fly around all these biological structures?

或游或飛，探索這些生物構造

我把這想像成卡通那樣， 不過是真的就是了

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

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

我們有兩個黏在一起的牡蠣

這個區域之前全都被黏著物填滿

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

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

我們發現這個黏著物是由

許多不同的成分組和而成

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

但大體來說

這裡面有分為 堅硬且不具黏性的部份

and there are soft, sticky parts,

和軟黏的部份

我們選擇性地移除不黏的部分

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

然後來看 連接動物們的東西中剩下什麼

to see what's left -

for what's actually attaching the animals -

and what we got is this,

我們發現這個

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

我們可以看到這個黏著劑

把兩個動物連在一起

And I just think it's a really cool image

我覺得這張圖真的很酷

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

因為你可以想像自己飛進去

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

以上就是我們為了解 海洋生物如何製造這些物質

how marine biology is making these materials.

所做的研究

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

從根本的角度來看， 得到這些知識十分令人興奮

But what do we want to do with this information?

但有了這些知識要做什麼呢？

Well, there's a lot of technological applications

如果我們可以利用 這些動物所生產的

if we can harness what the animals are doing.

那麼其實可有許多 科技上的運用

So let me give you one example.

給各位一個例子

So imagine you're at home

想像你在家裡

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

你打破最愛的小塑像 或馬克杯或類似的東西

You want to put it back together.

你想把它拼回去

So where do you go?

你會去哪裡呢?

You go to my favorite place in town,

會去到我最喜歡去的地方──

which is the glue aisle of the hardware store.

五金行賣膠水的走道

I know where you spend your nights

我知道各位如何度過你們的夜晚

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

你們都很時髦，因為你們在這裡

and you're going to bars and concerts -

你們會去酒吧、演唱會之類的

this is where I hang out every night.

而我每晚就到這裡晃晃

So anyways,

喔，我想叫你們做的事就是

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

把架上所有的黏膠買回去

bring it home,

but before you try to put things back together,

但在你把東西拼回去之前

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

我想請你先在水下試試

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

拼不起來，對吧？ 這是眾所皆知的

So obviously, marine biology has solved this,

很顯然海洋生物解決了這個問題

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

而我們需要做得事就是 想辦法複製這個解方

And one of the issues here

其中有個問題

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

你不能直接去海邊收集這些物質

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

因為如果你去抓一堆的貽貝

然後試著擠出裡面的黏液

you'll get a little bit of material,

你只能得到一點點

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

但那永遠不夠你拿來做事

只能看而已

我們需要提升這個規模

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

最好能有一輛列車這麼多

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

上面的圖片顯示的是

動物們做黏膠時 會用到的一種分子

that the animals use to make their glue,

and what they are is very long molecules called proteins,

它們是種很長的分子 叫做「蛋白質」

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

這些蛋白質分子中有獨特的成分

that bring about the adhesive properties.

可以產生黏著的特性

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

我們取那化學成份的一小部分

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

放到我們取得的其他長分子中

but that we can make on a really large scale,

這要是我們能大量製造的物質

so you might know them as plastics or polymers,

你可能稱這些物質 「塑料」或「聚合物」

and so we're sort of simplifying what they do

我們有點簡化它們的作用

但就是把那個 黏性化學成分放到這些大分子

but then putting that adhesion chemistry into these large molecules.

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

如此，我們研發出 許多不同的黏質系統

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

那當你製造出 一個看起來不錯的新黏膠

你會怎麼做呢?

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

你會開始在實驗室裡黏東黏西

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

在這個例子裡，我們拿一點點黏膠 把兩塊金屬黏起來

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

然後我們想在上面掛點東西

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

所以我們吊了一桶活貽貝

自己覺得很聰明

(Laughs)

（笑聲）

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

當然我們常常把這量化了

and so we benchmark against commercial adhesives,

所以我們拿去 跟市面上的黏著劑比較

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

然後發現

現在我們有一些 比強力膠還牢固的物質

So to me, that's really cool.

對我來說這很酷

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

這是實驗室的好日子， 這膠比強力膠還牢固

And here's something else that we can do.

這是另一個我們能做的

So this is a tank of seawater,

這是一缸的海水

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

那個注射器裡 有我們的黏膠配方

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

我們在水下 把黏膠擠到金屬片上

on a piece of metal.

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

然後我們要製造一個黏合點

So we take another piece of metal,

所以我們拿另一片個金屬片

and we put it on there and just position it.

把它放在那裡，調整好位置

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

之後要讓膠乾一下，給它點時間

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

在上面施加點力，沒多複雜

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

這就是個含鉛的管子 沒什麼花俏的

And then you let it sit for a while.

然後你就放著等它一下

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

這完全沒有接觸到空氣，完全在水下

And you pick it up.

你把它拿起來

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

每次到這裡我就很緊張

我永遠不知道會發生什麼事

拿起來…

You pick it up ...

and it stuck.

它黏住了

To me, this is really cool.

我覺得這很酷

So we can actually get very strong underwater adhesion.

我們這有很強的水下附著力

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

這可能是史上最強的水下黏著劑

不然也是最強的之一

that's ever been seen.

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

這甚至比動物製造的物質還要牢固

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

所以對我們來說 這挺令人興奮、挺酷的

So what do we want to do with these things?

那我們拿這些東西要做什麼呢？

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

下面有些你可能很熟悉的產品

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

想一下你的手機、筆電， 大部分的膠合板

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

你車子的內裝、鞋子、電話簿 諸如此類的東西

They're all held together with adhesives,

它們皆由黏著劑接合而成

and there's two main problems

而這些產品所用的黏著劑

with the adhesives used in these materials.

有兩個大問題

The first one is that they're toxic.

第一，它們有毒

So the worst offender here is plywood.

最糟的是膠合板

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

膠合板、許多的傢俱 和木質層壓的地板

所用的黏著劑中 「甲醛」是主要的成分

a main component of the adhesives here is formaldehyde,

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

也許你聽過這個物質

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

它是一種氣體，也是致癌物

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

所以當我們拿這些黏著劑來建構時

我們也吸入許多的致癌物

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

So not good, obviously, right?

顯然，這不太妙，對吧？

The other issue is that these adhesives are all permanent.

另一個問題是 這些黏著劑都是永久的

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

當你的鞋子、車或筆電壽終正寢

你不想再用的時候， 你會怎麼做呢？

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

For the most part, they end up in landfills.

這些東西的很大一部分 都進到垃圾掩埋場

There's precious materials in there

而其中有許多貴重的原料

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

我們會想把它們取出來回收

but we can't do it so easily,

但這並不容易做到

because they're all stuck together permanently, right?

因為它們全都被膠 永遠地黏在一起

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

為要解決這個問題 我們嘗試一個辦法

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

我們從玉米中

取出另一個長分子

that we can actually get from corn,

and then into that molecule,

然後將貽貝中的 黏性化學成分放入其中

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

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

因為我們用了玉米 又用了貽貝

we call this our surf-and-turf polymer.

所以我們稱它為「海田聚合物」

And it sticks. It sticks really well.

它黏得住

It's very strong.

而且成效很好，很牢固

同時，它主要也是由生物組成的

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

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

這點不錯

但也許這裡更重要的一點是 它也可被分解

we can degrade it under very mild conditions,

我們可不費力地把它分解

just with water.

像是用水

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

所以，我們可以在需要時

把東西黏得很牢固

and we can bond them strongly when we want,

but we can also take them apart when we want.

而我們也可以將之拆解

It's something we're thinking about.

這是我們正在研究的

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

這是我們都想要的

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

或就這件事來說

這是我們所不希望遇到的

but we'd like to replace this.

我們想取代這個

So sutures, staples, screws:

縫線、釘子、螺絲

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

我們在你開完刀或有傷口時

會用這些工具把你拼回去

It's just awful. It hurts.

這實在很糟

這很痛

In the case of the sutures,

舉縫線為例

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

當你要縫合的時候

要集中施加多少機械力

as you pull things together;

you're making sites for infection;

還會製造感染的溫床

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

在健康的組織裡戳洞不太好

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

又像是你要用一塊板子把骨頭固定住

look at how much healthy bone you have to drill out

看看你得鑽多少健康的骨頭 只為了把板子固定住？

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

這真的很糟

我覺得這些像在中古世紀 刑求室所發明的東西

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

but it's our modern surgical joinery.

但這是我們的現代外科工藝

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

所以我想有一天

用這些黏著劑來取代這套系統

with adhesives, right?

It's not easy.

我們正在努力，但這並不簡單

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

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

想想看黏著劑 要應用在這些用途上

需有什麼特性

So first of all,

第一，它會需要耐的住潮濕的環境

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

如果你看一下這張呆呆的圖片

And if you look at the silly little picture there,

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

這張圖說明 我們的身體有百分之 60 是水

所以我們的身體是個潮濕的環境

so it's a wet environment.

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

這張圖也說明了

我為什麼是科學家 而不是藝術家

I did not miss my calling at all.

我完全沒有選錯職業

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

一個好的生醫黏著劑 要有另一個條件

it needs to bond strongly, of course,

當然，它要能黏合得很牢固

and it needs to not be toxic.

而且它要是無毒的

You don't want to hurt the patients.

你不會想害你的病人

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

一個物質要滿足 任意兩個條件很容易

It's been done many times.

這被做很多次了

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

但要滿足全部三個條件 便十分困難

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

倘若你去問醫生，他們會很挑剔

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

他們會說

「嗯，我想要黏著劑在手術時乾」

Oh, okay.

Or, "Oh, I want the adhesive to degrade

或是「嗯，我想要黏著劑能夠分解

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

這樣病人的組織才能重組」

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

這實在很困難。我們正在努力

This is just one image we have.

這是我們拍的一張照片

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

我們去找各種的骨頭，皮膚

軟組織，硬組織──

and sometimes we'll whack it with a hammer.

我們有時候會用鐵鎚敲擊

通常我們會把它切成精確的形狀

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

then we glue them back together.

然後再把他們黏回去

我們得一到些令人興奮的成果

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

一些強韌的物質

some things that look like they're not toxic.

一些看起來無毒、耐潮的東西

They set wet, looks pretty good,

但我不會告訴你們 我們解決了潮濕黏著的問題

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

因為我們還沒完成

because we haven't,

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

但這絕對是在我們的未來 可預期的目標

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

這是件我們希望看到 有更多發展的事

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

你可以想像還有很多其他的領域

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

如果可以取得更多的黏著劑 我們的生活可能會更好

像是化妝品

So one thing is cosmetics.

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

想一下有些人戴假指甲或假睫毛

like this -

what do they use?

他們用什麼？

They use very toxic adhesives right now.

他們目前用的是毒性很強的黏著劑

So it's just ripe for replacement.

是時候把它換掉了

That's something we'd like to do.

這是我們想做的事

還有很多其他的領域

And there are other places too.

So think about cars and planes.

想一想車子和飛機

The lighter you can make them,

它們越輕越省油

the more fuel efficient they're going to be.

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

所以如果我們可以

更多地以黏著劑

to put more adhesives in there,

代替鉚釘和焊接

then we might be better off

我們未來的運輸和生活可能會更好

with our future generation of transportation.

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

對我們來說

這一切都回到沙灘

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

我們看看四周，然後想問

「這些海洋生物時如何黏起來的？」

And what can we do with the technology?"

「我們可以把這項技術拿來做什麼？」

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

我認為我們還有很多

可以向生物向大自然學習的地方

from biology and from nature.

所以我想鼓勵各位在將來

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

is put down your nonrecyclable laptops and cell phones

放下你那不能回收的電腦和手機

and go out and explore the natural world

走到戶外，探索大自然

and then start asking some of your own questions.

並提出你你自己的問題

Thanks very much.

謝謝

（掌聲）

(Applause)