Jonathan Wilker: What sticky sea creatures can teach us about making glue
乔纳森 · 威尔克: 分泌黏胶的海洋生物教我们如何制作胶水
Jonathan Wilker explores the science and engineering happening within our oceans. He works to understand the ways that sea creatures survive and how we can adapt their technologies to create new materials. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
on a field trip,
野外实地考察,
就带你们去海边,
and take you all to the beach
and the salt spray.
we're getting knocked around by the waves,
to stay in place.
by all sorts of sea creatures
附着在岩石上
there in place, no problem.
一点也没问题。
that if you want to survive
你产生黏液的能力。
upon your ability to make glue, actually.
to some of the heroes of our story,
一下故事中的主角,
they're covering the rocks.
覆盖在岩石上的。
to each other, actually.
together as a group.
of an oyster reef,
extensive reef systems.
规模大的礁石系统。
they can be meters deep,
数米深,
dominant influence
的主要因素,
marine ecosystem is going to be,
is they're filtering the water constantly,
inside of these reefs.
住在这些礁石里。
what happens when a storm comes in,
来临又会发生什么呢
first has to hit miles of these reefs,
它会先击打这些数英里长的礁石
is going to be protected.
pretty much anywhere in the world,
如果你有去过任何一个,
with what barnacles look like.
these are just three of them --
这里只是其中的三个
they stick to the rocks
粘在石头上,
and by doing this,
更多的生存优势。
advantages they get.
is subjected to less of the turbulence
环境损害的影响较小,
that can happen from that environment.
其中一个优势,
in numbers thing,
keep away the predators,
想要把你叼起来吃掉,
wants to pick you up and eat you,
那海鸥就很难抓它们。
if they're all stuck together.
这也有助于它们有效繁衍。
with reproductive efficiency.
当藤壶先生和藤壶小姐决定,
that when Mr. and Mrs. Barnacle decide,
little baby barnacles" --
how they do that just yet --
简单、高效地繁衍。
efficiency is higher
how they do this, how do they stick,
如何黏在一起的,
all the details,
we're still trying to figure out,
that we're trying to do.
其中一个水生系统,
systems we have in our lab,
is part of the system,
这个系统的一部分,
in the bottom, there's a bunch of mussels,
底部有一群贻贝,
we have the lights cycled,
产生更多的黏液,
more adhesives for us
we collect it, we study it.
然后我们收集、学习它。
they're in Maine in February,
它们正在二月份的缅因海边,
as far as we can tell.
南卡罗来纳州的小礁石,
of a small reef in South Carolina,
is seeing how they attach to each other,
如何粘着彼此,
in the bottom image
that are cementing to each other.
分开,然后观察,
we'll cut them and look down,
of images we have here,
we'll have two shells,
and the shell of another animal,
in the shell of each animal,
actually looks different.
生物和化学工具
of fancy biology and chemistry tools
is the structures are different
and it's quite interesting.
这就十分的有趣。
before I tell you what this is.
我想先回顾一下,
"The Magic School Bus"?
知道《神奇之旅》这部电影吗?
"Fantastic Voyage," right?
they had these characters
缩小到微粒大小,
to these microscopic levels,
all these biological structures?
而我们真的在这样做。
except for it's real, in this case.
two oysters that are stuck together,
completely filled in with the cement,
has lots of different components in there,
有许多不同的成份,
很牢固却非黏性的部分,
there are hard, non-sticky parts
the non-sticky parts selectively
移除非黏性部分,
attaching the animals,
什么连接着动物,
there's this sticky adhesive
飞进去再回来。
and going back there.
we're doing to understand
is making these materials.
it's really exciting to learn.
学习这些真的很令人兴奋。
to do with this information?
我们想要做什么呢?
of technological applications
动物生产黏液的方式,
what the animals are doing.
or a mug or something like that?
或杯子或类似的东西,
of the hardware store.
度过你们的夜晚,
cool people, because you're here,
所以会在这里
and concerts --
that's on the shelf,
to put things back together,
in a bucket of water.
We all know this.
我们都知道。
has solved this,
ways to be able to copy this ourselves.
这个行为的解决方法。
the materials from the beach,
获得这些物质,
to do anything with,
最好是一节火车厢的量。
ideally maybe train car scale.
of one of the types of molecules
胶体的一种分子,
to make their glue,
叫做蛋白质,
molecules, they're called proteins,
some fairly unique parts in them
有黏性的物质。
those little parts of that chemistry,
into other long molecules that we can get
on a really large scale,
as plastics or polymers,
“聚合物”,
simplifying what they do,
放入这些大分子中,
into these large molecules.
不同的黏性系统,
adhesive systems in doing this,
很不错的黏合剂时,
a new adhesive that looks pretty good,
到处粘东西。
just sticking stuff together.
把两片金属粘在一起,
and glued together two pieces of metal
自认为很聪明。
and thought we were very clever.
quantitative about this most often,
against commercial adhesives,
超强力胶水更厉害的黏合物。
that are stronger than superglue.
它们比强力胶更厉害!
It's stronger than superglue.
is one of our adhesive formulations,
we're dispensing it completely underwater,
an adhesive bond, or joint,
纽带或黏合点,
and just position it.
for a while, give it a chance,
on it, nothing fancy.
没什么复杂的。
也没什么特别的
in it, nothing fancy.
完全在水下操作。
It's completely underwater.
水下黏附力。
very strong underwater adhesion.
or at least one of the strongest
至少是最强的水下黏合剂之一。
that's ever been seen.
that the animals produce,
太酷了。
It's pretty cool.
with these things?
that you're probably really familiar with.
很熟悉的东西。
大多数结构用的胶合板,
your laptop, plywood in most structures,
鞋子、电话本等等。
phone books, things like this.
with the adhesives
或复合地板,
or wood laminate in floors --
here is formaldehyde,
成份是甲醛,
一种致癌物质。
a lot of structures from these adhesives,
来组建结构时,
a lot of this carcinogen.
are all permanent.
黏合剂都是永久的。
or your car or even your laptop
甚至是你的笔记本电脑?
when you're done using it?
they end up in landfills.
最后都进入了垃圾场。
of precious materials in there
and recycle them.
together permanently.
尝试解决部分问题,
to try and solve some of these problems,
is we've taken another long molecule
从玉米中提取另一个长分子,
放入那条分子里。
chemistry from the mussels.
and we've got the mussels,
它是可降解的。
it's also degradable,
条件下,用水降解。
under very mild conditions, with water.
is we can set things up
如果需要,可以将它们黏的很牢,
strongly when we want,
where a lot of us want to be.
我们都不想碰到这种情况,
this is a place we do not want to be,
if you've had some surgery or an injury.
医生用它们将伤口缝合
look at how much you're making
多少的精力和体力。
as you pull things together.
这很不好。
It's not so good.
to hold together your bones,
固定衔接骨头,
you have to drill out
刑讯室发明的东西
devised in a medieval torture chamber,
黏合剂来取代这些系统。
systems like these with adhesives.
but this is not easy.
for adhesives in these cases.
你需要有怎样特性的黏合剂。
an adhesive that is going to set
起效,
little picture there,
有点蠢的图片,
百分之六十都是水,
are about 60 percent water,
为什么我是科学家而不是画家。
I am a scientist and not an artist.
you need for a good biomedical adhesive:
为了好的生物医学黏合剂,
in a material is pretty easy.
要求还是很容易的。
But getting all three hasn't been done.
但要满足全部三个条件,
他们会对此挑剔,
they get picky --
在手术就凝固。“
on the same time frame as the surgery."
can remodel the site."
但我们正在研究。
We're working on it.
all sorts of bones and skin
硬组织,
we'll whack it with a hammer.
in precise shapes.
令人兴奋的成果,
some strong materials,
一些看起来无毒、耐潮的东西。
like they're not toxic,
解决了潮湿黏附力的问题,
we've solved the wet adhesion problem,
in our sights for the future.
更多发展的领域之一。
to see things go farther down the road.
you can imagine we might be better off
你可以想象一下,
如果我们可以获得更多黏合剂。
fake nails or eyelash extensions,
很强的黏合剂。
像车、飞机。
they're going to be.
来替代铆钉和焊接
and get away from welding
未来的交通会便利,
of transportation.
comes back to the beach.
"How do these sea creatures stick?
“这些海洋生物是如何粘起来的?
really a lot of things we can still learn
大自然学习很多。
you all to do in the future
放下不可回收的笔记本和手机,
laptops and cell phones
some of your own questions.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Jonathan Wilker - Scientist, engineerJonathan Wilker explores the science and engineering happening within our oceans. He works to understand the ways that sea creatures survive and how we can adapt their technologies to create new materials.
Why you should listen
Jonathan Wilker is a professor of chemistry and materials engineering at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, US. Prior to arriving at Purdue in 1999, he received a bachelor's degree from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, a PhD at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was a postdoctoral scholar at the California Institute of Technology. His research has been recognized with a Beckman Young Investigator Award, an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship and a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award. His teaching has also received several awards at Purdue. He is always on the lookout for new projects when at the beach or while underwater scuba diving.
Jonathan Wilker | Speaker | TED.com