TEDxBoston 2009
George Whitesides: A lab the size of a postage stamp
乔治 怀特萨德：邮票大小的实验室
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传统用于疾病诊断的实验室，造价都非常的昂贵且检测程序也纷繁复杂。在苛刻的环境中，不太适合。乔治·怀特萨德提出了富有创意的构想，那就是以接近零成本来完成疾病的检测。
George Whitesides - Chemist
In his legendary career in chemistry, George Whitesides has been a pioneer in microfabrication and nanoscale self-assembly. Now, he's fabbing a diagnostic lab on a chip. Full bio
In his legendary career in chemistry, George Whitesides has been a pioneer in microfabrication and nanoscale self-assembly. Now, he's fabbing a diagnostic lab on a chip. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:15
The problem that I want to talk with you about
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今天我想和大家一同探讨的问题是
00:18
is really the problem of:
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具有现实意义的
00:20
How does one supply healthcare
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即人们如何获得基本的医疗保障
00:24
in a world in which cost is everything?
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我们都知道，现在是一个成本至上的社会
00:28
How do you do that?
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对于此我们应如何取舍？
00:30
And the basic paradigm we want to suggest to you,
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首先，我们来讨论这样一种情况
00:32
I want to suggest to you, is
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这个情况是这样的
00:34
one in which you say that in order to
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如果我们想要治疗某种疾病
00:36
treat disease you have to first know what you're treating --
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我们必须先弄清楚这是什么样的一种病
00:40
that's diagnostics -- and then you have to do something.
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只有通过诊断，我们才能进行相应的治疗。
00:42
So, the program that we're involved in is something which we call
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同样，诊断也是我们这个项目的核心问题
00:45
Diagnostics for All, or zero-cost diagnostics.
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这里，称作诊断为先，或零成本诊断。
00:49
How do you provide medically relevant information
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在座的各位或许会问
00:52
at as close as possible to zero cost? How do you do it?
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如何才能提供零成本的医疗信息？
00:56
Let me just give you two examples.
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接下来，我就用两个例子予以说明。
00:58
The rigors of military medicine
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其实，艰苦的随军医疗
01:02
are not so dissimilar from the third world --
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与第三世界的医疗情况甚是相像
01:04
poor resources, a rigorous environment,
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两者都面临，匮乏的医疗资源、艰苦的生存环境
01:07
a series of problems in lightweight, and things of this kind --
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及一系列因营养失衡、体重不足，而引起的问题。
01:11
and also not so different from the home healthcare
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同样，两者在普通医疗保健
01:14
and diagnostic system world.
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和诊断方面也没有太大的区别。
01:17
So, the technology that I want to talk about
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其实，今天我们在探讨的这项新技术
01:20
is for the third world, for the developing world,
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是非常适合第三世界与发展中国家的。
01:23
but it has, I think, much broader application,
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当然，就我个人而言，我认为它还有更广泛的应用。
01:25
because information is so important in the healthcare system.
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因为准确的疾病诊断信息对疾病的治疗是至关重要的。
01:30
So, you see two examples here.
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来 我们来看看这两张图片
01:32
One is a lab that is actually a fairly high-end laboratory in Africa.
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第一张图片是位于非洲的一家高级实验室
01:37
The second is basically an entrepreneur
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第二张则是一位企业家
01:39
who is set up and doing who-knows-what in a table in a market.
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他正一个集市里做着一些检验工作。
01:43
I don't know what kind of healthcare is delivered there.
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或许这并没有传达任何有关医疗的信息。
01:46
But it's not really what is probably most efficient.
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但同时这也说明他所作的并不是最有效的。
01:51
What is our approach?
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我们这一项目的目标是什么？
01:54
And the way in which one typically approaches
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其实我们最为关注的问题是
01:57
a problem of lowering cost,
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如何降低使用成本。
02:00
starting from the perspective of the United States,
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从美国市场的角度来看，
02:03
is to take our solution,
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如果我们想要成功推广某一方案
02:05
and then to try to cut cost out of it.
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我们就必须要试图去降低它的成本。
02:07
No matter how you do that,
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因为，无论这一方案是多么有效
02:09
you're not going to start with a 100,000-dollar instrument
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市场也不可能把10万美元的仪器费用，
02:11
and bring it down to no-cost. It isn't going to work.
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降至零。 这是不可能办到的。
02:14
So, the approach that we took was the other way around.
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所以，我们采用了另外的方法来出奇制胜。
02:17
To ask, "What is the cheapest possible stuff
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有人问
02:19
that you could make a diagnostic system out of,
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“世界上什么材料最廉价且适用于制造诊断疾病的仪器，
02:22
and get useful information,
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同时能提供有用的信息，
02:24
add function?" And what we've chosen is paper.
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而且能增添功能？“ 对这一问题，我们的答案是纸张。
02:27
What you see here is a prototypic device.
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现在大家看到的是，用纸做的诊断设备的模型
02:30
It's about a centimeter on the side.
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它的宽度约为1厘米
02:32
It's about the size of a fingernail.
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大小与我们的指甲差不多
02:34
The lines around the edges are
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纸上的线条来自于
02:36
a polymer.
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一种聚合物（可与被测物质相互反应，随后产生一系列的物理、化学变化）
02:38
It's made of paper and paper, of course, wicks fluid,
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这是纸质的，而纸是有吸附功能的。
02:42
as you know, paper, cloth -- drop wine on the tablecloth,
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众所周知，纸啊，布料啊，可以吸收液体。
02:46
and the wine wicks all over everything.
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例如，我们不小心把酒洒在了桌布上，那么桌布会一片狼藉。
02:49
Put it on your shirt, it ruins the shirt.
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如果弄到了衬衣上，那么衬衣也被弄脏了。
02:51
That's what a hydrophilic surface does.
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这些现象都反应了纸张的亲水特性。
02:54
So, in this device the idea is that you drip
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这也是我们仪器的运作原理。
02:56
the bottom end of it in a drop of,
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我们在试片的底部，滴入一滴液体
02:58
in this case, urine.
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在这个检测中，我们使用的是尿液
03:00
The fluid wicks its way into those chambers at the top.
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滴入的尿液集中在这个小槽中，
03:04
The brown color indicates the amount of glucose in the urine,
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左边棕色部分显示尿液中葡萄糖的含量
03:08
the blue color indicates the amount of protein in the urine.
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右边蓝色部分则显示尿液中蛋白质的含量
03:11
And the combination of those two
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随后将两部分的信息相结合，
03:13
is a first order shot at a number of
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我们便获得
03:15
useful things that you want.
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初步所需的检测结果
03:18
So, this is an example of a device made from a simple piece of paper.
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这就是一个用简单的纸张制成的分析仪的例子
03:21
Now, how simple can you make the production?
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现在，我们来看看这类仪器是如何制成的？
03:24
Why do we choose paper?
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第一个问题，为什么选择纸质？
03:26
There's an example of the same thing on a finger,
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图片中手指上
03:29
showing you basically what it looks like.
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呈现的也是类似刚才介绍过的分析仪
03:31
One reason for using paper is that it's everywhere.
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选择用纸质的首要原因是“纸，无处不在”
03:34
We have made these kinds of devices using
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我们可以用纸做成
03:36
napkins and toilet paper
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餐巾纸，卫生纸等类似的许多其他纸类物品
03:39
and wraps, and all kinds of stuff.
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还有用纸来包装，等等。
03:41
So, the production capability is there.
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所以，产能上基本没有限制。
03:44
The second is, you can put lots and lots
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其次是
03:46
of tests in a very small place.
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“小小一片纸能完成许许多多的测试”
03:48
I'll show you in a moment that the stack of paper there
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待会，我会给大家讲解一堆纸张如何
03:50
would probably hold something like
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可能被用来进行
03:52
100,000 tests, something of that kind.
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10万个检验。
03:55
And then finally, a point that you don't think of so much
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最后一个原因，大家往往比较容易忽略
03:58
in developed world medicine:
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因为在发达国家
04:01
it eliminates sharps.
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我们不太使用针刺的方法来获取检验样本
04:03
And what sharps means is needles, things that stick.
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针刺法就是用针，刺穿皮肤获得检验样本，而残余样本会滞留在针里。
04:06
If you've taken a sample of someone's blood
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如果我们抽取了某人的血液样本
04:08
and the someone might have hepatitis C,
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而那个人可能携带丙肝病毒的血液样本
04:11
you don't want to make a mistake and stick it in you.
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在检测后，样本是不可以随便遗弃的™
04:13
It just -- you don't want to do that.
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这时，我们就会考虑，
04:15
So, how do you dispose of that? It's a problem everywhere.
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怎样才能安全有效的清理这些医疗垃圾?
04:17
And here you simply burn it.
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最为简单的方法就是焚烧
04:19
So, it's a sort of a practical approach
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所以，纸质的检测仪确实是一种实用的方法
04:21
to starting on things.
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来采用
04:24
Now, you say, "If paper is a good idea,
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好了 现在
04:27
other people have surely thought of it."
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在座的各位都应该认同
04:29
And the answer is, of course, yes.
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纸是非常好用的一种材料，对。
04:32
Those half of you, roughly,
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这里的各位
04:34
who are women,
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粗粗看来，一半都是女性
04:36
at some point may have had a pregnancy test.
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相信大家，可能都经历过验孕测试。
04:38
And the most common of these
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大多数的验孕仪，
04:41
is in a device that looks like the thing on the left.
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就像是左边图片中的那样
04:44
It's something called a lateral flow immunoassay.
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学术上，我们称之为横向流动免疫测定仪。
04:46
In that particular test,
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在这一检测中
04:48
urine either, containing
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我们让
04:50
a hormone called HCG, does or does not
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可能含有HCG（绒毛膜促性腺激素，荷尔蒙的一种）的尿液
04:53
flow across a piece of paper.
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渗透一张试纸来进行检测
04:55
And there are two bars. One bar indicates that the test is working,
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试纸上有两条线
04:59
and if the second bar shows up, you're pregnant.
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一条是用来显示试纸是否起作用的，另一条是用来检测是否怀孕的。
05:02
This is a terrific kind of test in a binary world,
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这对于新时代而言，这是一项非常赞的发明。
05:05
and the nice thing about pregnancy
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有关怀孕更重要的是
05:07
is either you are pregnant or you're not pregnant.
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你只能是怀孕了或是没有怀孕
05:09
You're not partially pregnant or thinking about being pregnant
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你不可能是不完全的怀孕了，或是正想着而变怀孕了，
05:11
or something of that sort.
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或者是其它一些中间状态。
05:13
So, it works very well there,
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对于上述的问题，验孕试纸能给我们很好的回答
05:15
but it doesn't work very well when you need more quantitative information.
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但却无法给予更多的量化的信息
05:18
There are also dipsticks,
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图片中的这些，同样也是试纸。
05:20
but if you look at the dipsticks, they're for
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但，这里的尿样检测
05:22
another kind of urine analysis.
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却有了其他的意义
05:24
There are an awful lot of colors and things like that.
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试纸上有许多的颜色， 在不同的情况下，显示不同的结果
05:27
What do you actually do about that in a difficult circumstance?
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在这种复杂的情况下，我们如何办到？
05:30
So, the approach that we started with is to ask:
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所以我们采用的办法就是，问我们自己
05:35
Is it really practical to make things of this sort?
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如何实现纸质检测的构想？
05:39
And that problem is now, in a purely engineering way, solved.
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其实，这个问题只要用简单的工程方法即可解决
05:43
And the procedure that we have is simply to start with paper.
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原材料我们只用到了纸张
05:47
You run it through a new kind of printer called a wax printer.
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然后使用一种叫做“蜡膜打印机”的新型打印机
05:50
The wax printer does what looks like printing.
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这种打印机和普通的打印机，在外表几乎没有区别。
05:53
It is printing. You put that on, you warm it a little bit,
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启动机器，加温蜡盒
05:56
the wax prints through so it absorbs into the paper,
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蜡油便会渗透到纸张内
05:59
and you end up with the device that you want.
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然后，你想要的测试纸就被打印出来了
06:01
The printers cost 800 bucks now.
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这类打印机，现在的售价大概是每台800美元。
06:05
They'll make, we estimate that if you were to run them 24 hours a day
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我估算了一下，如果开足马力，连续工作24小时。
06:08
they'd make about 10 million tests a year.
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那么，打印后的蜡纸可供一千万的试验用量
06:11
So, it's a solved problem, that particular problem is solved.
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所以，这个测试纸的构想很好的实现了
06:14
And there is an example of the kind of thing that you see.
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这里我有一个具体的实例
06:16
That's on a piece of 8 by 12 paper.
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这是由12张纸组成的，可供8次试验的试纸
06:19
That takes about two seconds to make.
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仅用2秒钟制成
06:21
And so I regard that as done.
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十分的迅速
06:23
There is a very important issue here,
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这里还有一个非常重要的问题，
06:25
which is that because it's a printer,
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因为我们用的是彩色打印机
06:28
a color printer, it prints colors. That's what color printers do.
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众所周知，彩色打印机可以打印出不同的颜色。
06:31
I'll show you in a moment, that's actually quite useful.
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待会，我再说明这个的具体用处。
06:35
Now, the next question that you would like to ask
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大家可能联想到的第二个问题是，
06:38
is: What would you like to measure? What would you like to analyze?
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怎样分析、测算试验结果？
06:41
And the thing which you'd most like to analyze,
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解答前，我还要先澄清一个观点
06:44
we're a fair distance from.
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一直以来，大家想要分析的东西。其实，与我们想要获得的信息是有出入的。
06:46
It's what's called "fever of undiagnosed origin."
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这类似于“发热确诊原因”的情形
06:50
Someone comes into the clinic,
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当病人来到诊所时,他们感到发烧，感到不适
06:52
they have a fever, they feel bad. What do they have?
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他们得了什么病呢？
06:54
Do they have T.B.? Do they have AIDS?
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是肺结核？艾滋？
06:56
Do they have a common cold?
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还是普通感冒？
06:58
The triage problem. That's a hard problem
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这是个很复杂的问题
07:00
for reasons that I won't go through.
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其他的可能性，在此不做深究
07:02
There are an awful lot of things that you'd like to distinguish among.
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因为实在是有太多的可能性了
07:05
But then there are a series of things:
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但这些病因
07:07
AIDS, hepatitis, malaria,
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如艾滋、肝炎、疟疾
07:09
TB, others
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肺结核，等等
07:11
and simpler ones, such as guidance of treatment.
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还有包括一些简单的因素，譬如疗程指导。
07:15
Now even that's more complicated than you think.
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还个因素比我们想象的要更复杂。
07:18
A friend of mine works in transcultural psychiatry,
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我有一位朋友负责跨文化精神病学的研究。
07:22
and he is interested in the question of
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他对于病人不按时吃药的问题
07:24
why people do and don't take their meds.
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十分关注
07:27
So, Dapsone, or something like that,
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特别是，例如氨苯砜（抗麻风病的一种药物）
07:29
you have to take it for a while.
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及其他需要长期服用的药物
07:31
He has a wonderful story of talking to a villager in India
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他告诉我，在印度某个村庄流传着一个非常有意思的故事。
07:34
and saying, "Have you taken your Dapsone?" "Yes."
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某日，医生问：“你是否服用氨苯砜？”病人答：“是”
07:36
"Have you taken it every day?" "Yes."
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医生问：“你是每天服用么？”病人答：“是”
07:39
"Have you taken if for a month?" "Yes."
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医生问：“你是否服用治疗了一个月？”病人答：“是”
07:41
What the guy actually meant
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大家知道么，其实，那个病人真正的意思是
07:43
was that he'd fed a 30-day dose of Dapsone
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他在早晨给自家的狗
07:45
to his dog, that morning.
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喂了30天剂量的氨苯砜
07:47
(Laughter)
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♫
07:48
He was telling the truth. Because
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病人说了实话。
07:50
in a different culture,
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因为在不同的文化背景下，
07:52
the dog is a surrogate for you,
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狗是人类的替代物
07:54
you know, "today," "this month," "since the rainy season" --
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对话中使用的，“今天”，“这个月”，“雨季前”
07:57
there are lots of opportunities for misunderstanding,
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也会引发很多的歧义
08:00
and so an issue here is to,
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这个故事
08:02
in some cases, to figure out
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主要告诉我们
08:04
how to deal with matters that seem uninteresting,
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对于枯燥、乏味的沟通
08:07
like compliance.
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我们更需要明确交流双方的信息详情
08:10
Now, take a look at what a typical test looks like.
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言归正传，我们来看一例典型的测试
08:14
Prick a finger, you get some blood,
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首先，扎破无名指，
08:16
about 50 microliters.
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获得50微毫升的血液样本
08:18
That's about all you're going to get,
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这么多的血液就已经足够
08:20
because you can't use the usual sort of systems.
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因为，我们无需再使用常规的检测仪器。
08:24
You can't manipulate it very well,
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你一般不能很方便的操纵这么少量的样本
08:26
although I'll show something about that in a moment.
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但是，等一下我将具体演示我们是怎样办到的。
08:28
So, you take the drop of blood, no further manipulations,
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好了，你只要提供一滴血液样本
08:31
you put it on a little device,
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然后将血液擦拭在试纸仪器上
08:33
the device filters out the blood cells, lets the serum go through,
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仪器过滤了血液中的细胞，唯独让血清得以通过
08:37
and you get a series of colors
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然后，你在试纸层上
08:39
down in the bottom there.
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观察到了许多的颜色
08:41
And the colors indicate "disease" or "normal."
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这些不用的颜色，显示了相应的疾病信息
08:45
But even that's complicated,
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但是，这些颜色分析起来有些复杂。
08:47
because to you, to me, colors might indicate "normal,"
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似乎，对你我而言，这些颜色看上去都挺正常的。
08:51
but, after all, we're all suffering from
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同样，（在仪器推广使用前）我们都没有过多的精力
08:53
probably an excess of education.
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进行一定的使用培训
08:56
What you do about something which requires
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那么
08:58
quantitative analysis?
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我们应如何处理需要定量分析的测试呢？
09:00
And so the solution that we and many other people
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我们和其他很多同行
09:03
are thinking about there,
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都想到
09:05
and at this point there is a dramatic flourish,
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当今有一种已非常的流行，
09:07
and out comes the universal solution to everything these days,
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而且已变成能几乎解决所有问题的办法，
09:10
which is a cell phone. In this particular case, a camera phone.
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那就是手机。在我们的这个例子里，是有拍照功能的手机。
09:13
They're everywhere, six billion a month in India.
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在印度，每月大概有600万的拍照手机用户。
09:18
And the idea is that what one does,
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所以，这个设想就很容易实现。
09:21
is to take the device,
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一张纸质分析仪
09:23
you dip it, you develop the color,
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你涂抹上血样，等到出现检测的颜色。
09:26
you take a picture, the picture goes to a central laboratory.
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然后，拍照上传到中央实验室。
09:29
You don't have to send out a doctor,
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你不必麻烦医生
09:31
you send out somebody who can just take the sample,
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你只要找个能采取这些信息的人
09:34
and in the clinic either a doctor, or ideally a computer
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然后，在诊所里，一个医生，或一台智能的电脑
09:37
in this case, does the analysis.
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来分析采集到的信息。
09:39
Turns out to work actually quite well, particularly when your
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这个办法的效果非常好，
09:41
color printer has printed the color bars
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特别是当彩色打印机已打印出彩色线条，这些有颜色的线条
09:43
that indicate how things work.
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能让测试过程一目了然。
09:45
So, my view of the health care worker of the future
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因此，我认为未来的医护人员
09:48
is not a doctor,
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并不一定是科班出生的医生
09:50
but is an 18-year-old, otherwise unemployed,
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只要他年满18周岁，无其他全职工作。
09:53
who has two things: He has a backpack full of these tests,
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在背包中有充足的试纸仪器；
09:55
and a lancet to occasionally take a blood sample,
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一把柳叶刀，可用于突发的采血需要；
09:58
and an AK-47.
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还有一把AK47
10:00
And these are the things that get him through his day.
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就能解决所有的工作需要和人生安全的问题。
10:05
There's another very interesting connection here,
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这里还有个非常有趣的现象
10:07
and that is that what one wants to do
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那就是
10:09
is to pass through useful information
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人们如何通过错综复杂的电话系统
10:12
over what is generally a pretty awful telephone system.
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传递有用的信息并得到回馈？
10:16
It turns out there's an enormous amount of information
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图片中的火星漫步者
10:19
already available on that subject, which is the Mars rover problem.
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已经成功的处理这一系列的问题
10:22
How do you get back an accurate view of the color on Mars
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如果你没有足够的带宽来进行测量，
10:26
if you have a really terrible bandwidth to do it with?
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如何才能精确的分析在火星上的颜色呢？
10:30
And the answer is not complicated
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这个问题的答案并不难，
10:32
but it's one which I don't want to go through here,
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但我不想在这里再说一遍了，
10:34
other than to say that the communication systems
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我想用这个例子说明的是，用来解决这一问题的信息系统，
10:37
for doing this are really pretty well understood.
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早已存在了。
10:39
Also, a fact which you may not know
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还有一点，我需要指明的就是
10:42
is that the compute capability of this thing
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手机的计算功能
10:45
is not so different from the compute capability
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不比你平时使用的台式机
10:47
of your desktop computer.
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差多少。
10:49
This is a fantastic device which is only beginning to be tapped.
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因为这是一个神奇的装置，它的巨大潜力才刚刚开启。
10:52
I don't know whether the idea of one computer, one child
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我不确定，“一台电脑，一个孩子“的构想是否可以引起下一场大变革，
10:56
makes any sense. Here's the computer of the future,
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但我手上拿的这个就像是未来的电脑，
10:59
because this screen is already there and they're ubiquitous.
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”电脑屏幕“已经在那里了，而且也有众多的使用者
11:04
All right now let me show you just a little bit about advanced devices.
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现在就让我来演示一下这些新仪器
11:06
And we'll start by posing a little problem.
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首先
11:09
What you see here is another centimeter-sized device,
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大家看到的是另一个厘米大小的分析仪。
11:12
and the different colors are different colors of dye.
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不同的颜色由不同的染料着色而成
11:16
And you notice something which might strike you as
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大家或许已经注意到
11:18
a little bit interesting,
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一个非常有趣的现象
11:20
which is the yellow seems to disappear,
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似乎黄色的线条，在通过红色和蓝色的线段时，
11:23
get through the blue, and then get through the red.
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有些消失部分消失了
11:26
How does that happen? How do you make something flow through something?
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这是怎么回事？我们是怎么让某种流体通过另一种流体的？
11:29
And, of course the answer is, "You don't."
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答案是：“当然，没有”
11:31
You make it flow under and over.
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我们只是让一种的流体从其他流体的下面或是上面通过而已
11:33
But now the question is: How do you make it flow
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但现在问题是，你如果让一种流体
11:35
under and over in a piece of paper?
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流过一张纸的上面或是下面呢？
11:38
The answer is that what you do,
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具体的答案与细节原因
11:41
and the details are not terribly important here,
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并不复杂
11:44
is to make something more elaborate:
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为了让信息更加精确，
11:46
You take several different layers of paper,
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我们使用多张纸
11:48
each one containing its own little fluid system,
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每张纸都有其自己的流体系统，
11:51
and you separate them by pieces of,
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然后，我们将其从纸上分开，
11:53
literally, double-sided carpet tape,
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再用双面胶，将他们粘在一起。
11:56
the stuff you use to stick the carpets onto the floor.
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这里用的双面胶就是我们日常用于地毯粘在地板上的那种。
11:59
And the fluid will flow from one layer into the next.
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这样一来，液体便可以从这层流到那层。
12:02
It distributes itself, flows through further holes,
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它们会沿着自己的轨道流动。
12:05
distributes itself.
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自我分流
12:07
And what you see, at the lower right-hand side there,
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你们在右下角看到的是
12:10
is a sample in which a single sample
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血液简单测试的样本
12:12
of blood has been put on the top,
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血液样本从最高处流入，
12:15
and it has gone through and distributed itself
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然后，自上而下从16个小孔中自我分流，
12:18
into these 16 holes on the bottom,
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直到试纸的最后一层。
12:21
in a piece of paper -- basically it looks like a chip,
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这个纸张分析仪，看起来有些像芯片，
12:23
two pieces of paper thick.
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大概有2张纸张的厚度
12:26
And in this particular case we were just interested in
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在这个例子中，我们只对
12:28
the replicability of that.
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检测的可重复性感兴趣。
12:30
But that is, in principle, the way you solve
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当然，这也是，帮助我们解决
12:32
the "fever of unexplained origin" problem,
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“发热本因”的基本原理。
12:34
because each one of those spots then becomes
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因为，这里的每一个点
12:36
a test for a particular set of markers
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可以用来测试
12:39
of disease,
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某一种疾病特定含有的一系列生物标记。
12:41
and this will work in due course.
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然后这种检测在适当的时候下就会发生作用。
12:43
Here is an example of a slightly more complicated device.
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图片中，是另一个相对复杂的检测仪。
12:46
There's the chip.
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这是一粒芯片
12:48
You dip in a corner. The fluid goes into the center.
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你在它的四个角上，沾上检验样本后，这些液体便会流向中央。
12:50
It distributes itself out into these various
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液体会自动分流，
12:53
wells or holes, and turns color,
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通过不同的小井或小孔，然后发生颜色变化。
12:55
and all done with paper and carpet tape.
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在这里， 我们只用到了纸张和地毯胶带。
12:58
So, I think it's as low-cost
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因此，它的成本仍然非常的低。
13:00
as we're likely to be able to come up and make things.
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所以，我们是可以大力推广这一仪器的。
13:04
Now, I have one last, two last little stories
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最后，我还有些信息要与大家分享。
13:07
to tell you, in finishing off this business.
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这样有便于构想得更好实现
13:10
This is one: One of the things that one does occasionally
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第一是
13:13
need to do is to separate blood cells from serum.
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我们必须先将血液细胞与血清分离
13:16
And the question was,
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通常的做法是
13:19
here we do it by taking a sample,
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先用针刺获得血样
13:21
we put it in a centrifuge,
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然后，用离心机分离。
13:24
we spin it, and you get blood cells out. Terrific.
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这样的做法总有些繁琐
13:28
What happens if you don't have an electricity,
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但问题是，当我们没有电力，
13:30
and a centrifuge, and whatever?
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没有离心机时，该怎么办呢？
13:32
And we thought for a while of how you might do this
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让我们仔细的想一想
13:35
and the way, in fact, you do it is what's shown here.
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事实上，大家看，答案就在这里。
13:37
You get an eggbeater,
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我们可以找个打蛋机，
13:39
which is everywhere, and you saw off a blade,
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这东西到处都有。 然后，我们把里面的刀片去掉，
13:42
and then you take tubing,
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然后，你取一只管子，
13:44
and you stick it on that. You put the blood in, you spin it --
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把改装过的打蛋鸡贴在上面。然后我们把血输入管子，然后旋转
13:46
somebody sits there and spins it.
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谁都可以坐着然后慢慢的搅，
13:48
It works really, really well.
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慢慢的使血清分离。
13:50
And we sat down, we did the physics of eggbeaters
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最后，我们声称我们研究了打蛋器的物理
13:52
and self-aligning tubes and all the rest of that kind of thing,
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和可自我调正的试管，和其他一些类似的东西，
13:55
sent it off to a journal.
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我们把这些写成稿子发给了一个杂志社
13:57
We were very proud of this, particularly the title,
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我们还很自豪的标榜文章的标题
13:59
which was "Eggbeater as Centrifuge."
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“打蛋器式的血清分离仪”
14:01
(Laughter)
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♫
14:02
And we sent it off, and by return mail it came back.
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我们把文章寄出去后，却收到拒绝发表的通知。
14:05
I called up the editor and I said,
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我打电话给编辑
14:07
"What's going on? How is this possible?"
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问道：“怎么回事？这怎么可能？”
14:09
The editor said, with enormous disdain,
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编辑带着巨大的藐视回答道：
14:12
"I read this.
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“我已经读了这篇报道。
14:14
And we're not going to publish it, because we only
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但是我们不会发表的，
14:16
publish science."
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因为我们只会发表科学。”
14:18
And it's an important issue
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这是一个非常重要的问题。
14:20
because it means that we have to,
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因为
14:22
as a society,
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作为一个社会
14:24
think about what we value.
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我们必须得想想什么是最重要的。
14:26
And if it's just papers and phys. rev. letters,
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如果我们所做的仅仅是在一些物理期刊上发发文章
14:28
we've got a problem.
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那么社会就会出现很大的问题。
14:31
Here is another example of something which is --
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这里
14:34
this is a little spectrophotometer.
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还有个关于分光光度计的例子
14:36
It measures the absorption of light in a sample
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分光光度计是用来测量光度吸收率的一种仪器。
14:39
The neat thing about this is, you have light source that flickers
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这一仪器使用的前提是，
14:42
on and off at about 1,000 hertz,
329
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你需要有一个以接近1000赫兹闪动的光源
14:44
another light source that detects that light at 1,000 hertz,
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和另一个用来检测频率在1000赫兹光波的光源。
14:48
and so you can run this system in broad daylight.
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然后你即使在白天也可以使用这个仪器
14:51
It performs about equivalently
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但是，它的功能和
14:53
to a system that's in the order of
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造价
14:56
100,000 dollars.
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大概是10万美元的设备是几乎等同的
14:58
It costs 50 dollars. We can probably make it for 50 cents,
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它的成本仅50美元。我们甚至可以把成本变成只有50分，
15:01
if we put our mind to it.
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要是我们一心想办到的话。
15:03
Why doesn't somebody do it? And the answer is,
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可为什么没有人做呢？答案是
15:05
"How do you make a profit in a capitalist system, doing that?"
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“在这样的资本世界中，我们这样做怎能获利？”
15:09
Interesting problem.
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这的确是有意思的问题。
15:12
So, let me finish by saying
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最后，我们来回顾一下。
15:14
that we've thought about this as a kind of engineering problem.
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今天所讨论的是一个工程问题。
15:18
And we've asked: What is the scientific unifying idea here?
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我们也问到了什么是科学的统一思想？
15:24
And we've decided that we should think about this
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我们也决定我们应该想
15:25
not so much in terms of cost,
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这不仅仅是成本控制的问题，
15:27
but in terms of simplicity.
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还是简易性的问题。
15:29
Simplicity is a neat word. And you've got to think about
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简易性是一个简单的词。但是我们得仔细想想
15:31
what simplicity means.
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简易性到底意味着什么。
15:33
I know what it is but I don't actually know what it means.
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我知道简易性，但却不知道它的深层含义。
15:37
So, I actually was interested enough in this to put together
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我因为太感兴趣了，我集合了
15:39
several groups of people.
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一些不同的人群一同探讨
15:43
And the most recent involved a couple of people at MIT,
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在与我沟通的一群人中
15:46
one of them being an exceptionally bright kid
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有位来自麻省理工学院的孩子
15:48
who is one of the very few people I would think of
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他非常的聪明
15:50
who's an authentic genius.
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完全可以被视为纯正的天才
15:52
We all struggled for an entire day to think about simplicity.
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我们用了一天的时间来讨论什么是纯粹、简易。
15:56
And I want to give you the answer of this
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我也想告诉大家我的
15:58
deep scientific thought.
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有关这一深刻的科学思想的见解。
16:01
(Laughter)
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♫
16:04
So, in a sense, you get what you pay for.
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所以就这么说，大家姑且能从我的演讲中得到一些回报吧。
16:07
Thank you very much.
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谢谢 非常感谢
16:09
(Laughter)
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♫
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
George Whitesides - ChemistIn his legendary career in chemistry, George Whitesides has been a pioneer in microfabrication and nanoscale self-assembly. Now, he's fabbing a diagnostic lab on a chip.
Why you should listen
Someday Harvard chemistry professor George Whitesides will take the time to look back on the 950 scientific articles he's coauthored, the dozen companies he's co-founded or the 50-plus patents on which he's named. (He works in four main areas: biochemistry, materials science, catalysis and physical organic chemistry.) In the meantime, he's trying to invent a future where medical diagnosis can be done by anyone for little or no cost. He's co-founded a nonprofit called Diagnostics for All that aims to provide dirt-cheap diagnostic devices, to provide healthcare in a world where cost is everything.
Among his solutions is a low-cost "lab-on-a-chip," made of paper and carpet tape. The paper wicks bodily fluids -- urine, for example -- and turns color to provide diagnostic information, such as how much glucose or protein is present. His goal is to distribute these simple paper diagnostic systems to developing countries, where people with basic training can administer tests and send results to distant doctors via cameraphone.
George Whitesides | Speaker | TED.com