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For thousands of years, well, really probably millions of years,
几千年或几百万年来，
our ancestors have looked up at the sky and wondered what's up there,
我们的祖先抬头仰望天空，想知道那里有什么，
and they've also started to wonder, hmm, could we be alone in this planet?
他们好奇：人类和地球独一无二吗？
Now, I'm fortunate that I get to get paid to actually ask some of those questions,
我很幸运能够领着薪水实际探讨这些问题；
and sort of bad news for you, your tax dollars are paying me to try to answer some of those questions.
对你而言算是个坏消息，因为你纳的税正付我薪水去探索其中的一些问题。
But then, about 10 years ago, I was told, I mean asked,
大约10年前我被告知，换言之，我被要求
if I would start to look at the technology to help get us off planet,
研究帮人类飞离地球的技术，
and so that's what I'm going to talk to you about today.
这就是我今天演讲的主题。
So playing to the local crowd, this is what it looks like in your day-to-day life in Boston,
这是波士顿本地人日常生活的样貌；
but as you start to go off planet, things look very, very different.
一旦你离开地球就大不相同。
So there we are, hovering above the WGBH studios.
这是我们在WGBH电台的上空徘徊。
And here's a very famous picture of the Earthrise from the Moon, and you can see the Earth starting to recede.
这是一张非常著名的从月球看地球升起的照片，看得到地球渐行渐远。
And then what I love is this picture that was taken from the surface of Mars looking back at the Earth.
我喜欢从火星表面看地球的照片。
Can anyone find the Earth? I'm going to help you out a little.
谁找得到地球？让我来帮忙。
Yeah. The point of showing this is that when people start to go to Mars,
是啊。关键是当人们开始去火星的时候
they're not going to be able to keep calling in and be micromanaged the way people on a space station are.
他们无法继续打电话，也无法像在太空站上那样微观管理。
They're going to have to be independent.
他们必须靠自己。
So even though they're up there, there are going to be all sorts of things that they're going to need,
因此，在火星那里的人将会需要各种各样的东西，
just like people on Earth need things like, oh, transportation, life support, food, clothing and so on.
就像地球上的人需要东西一样，诸如运输、维生、食物、衣服等等。
But unlike on Earth, they are also going to need oxygen.
但与地球不同，他们还需要氧气。
They're going to have to deal with about a third of the gravity that we have here.
还得面对这里三分之一的重力。
They're going to have to worry about habitats, power, heat, light and radiation protection,
他们得担心栖息地、能源、高温、光线和辐射防护，
something that we don't actually worry about nearly as much on the Earth,
在地球上无需担心这些，
because we have this beautiful atmosphere and magnetosphere.
因为我们有美丽的大气层和磁层。
The problem with that is that we also have a lot of constraints.
问题是我们也有很多的限制。
So the biggest one for us is upmass,
其中最大的问题就是载重，
and the number that I've used for years is it costs about 10,000 dollars to launch a can of Coke into low Earth orbit.
多年来我用的数字是将一罐可乐推入近地轨道约需一万美元。
The problem is, there you are with 10,000 dollars later, and you're still in low Earth orbit.
问题是花了一万美元后你仍处于近地轨道，
You're not even at the Moon or Mars or anything else.
还没到月球、火星或其他任何地方。
So you're going to have to try to figure out how to keep the mass as low as possible so you don't have to launch it.
因此得想出办法尽可能降低送上太空的质量。
But on top of that cost issue with the mass, you also have problems of storage and flexibility and reliability.
除了质量和成本问题，还有存储、灵活度和可靠性方面的问题。
You can't just get there and say, "Oops, I forgot to bring,"
你不能到了那里才说：“哎呀，我忘了带”，
because Amazon.com just does not deliver to Mars. So you better be prepared.
因为亚马逊不送货到火星。你最好先准备好。
So what is the solution for this?
那么有什么解决方案？
And I'm going to propose to you for the rest of this talk that the solution actually is life,
在接下来的演讲我提的解决之道就是生命，
and when you start to look at life as a technology, you realize, ah, that's it, that's exactly what we needed.
当你把生命视为科技时就会意识到，“啊，果真如此，正是我们需要的。”
This plant here, like every person here and every one of your dogs and cats and plants and so on, all started as a single cell.
这株植物，就像这里的每个人、你们的狗、猫和植物等，都从一个单细胞开始。
So imagine, you're starting as a very low upmass object and then growing into something a good deal bigger.
想象你一开始的质量很小，然后成长为一个大得多的物体。
Now, my hero Charles Darwin, of course, reminds us that there's no such thing as a designer in biology,
虽然我的英雄查尔斯·达尔文提醒我们在生物学中没有设计师这号人物，
but what if we now have the technology to design biology,
但倘若我们拥有设计生物的技术，
maybe even design, oh, whole new life-forms that can do things for us that we couldn't have imagined otherwise?
能够设计全新的生物，来为我们做过去无法想象的事呢？
So years ago, I was asked to start to sell this program,
几年前，我被指派来推展这个项目，
and while I was doing that, I was put in front of a panel at NASA,
我面对美国太空总署的一个小组，
as you might sort of imagine, a bunch of people in suits and white shirts and pencil protectors,
想象一群穿西装、白衬衫，外加防笔渍保护套的人，
and I did this sort of crazy, wild, "This is all the next great thing,"
我疯狂地推销：“这是下一个壮举”，
and I thought they would be blown over,
以为他们会惊为天人，
and instead the chairman of the committee just looked at me straight in the eye, and said, "So what's the big idea?"
然而委员会主席只是直视着我并说：“是什么壮举？”
So I was like, "OK, you want Star Trek? We'll do Star Trek."
我想：“好吧，你想要星际迷航？就给你星际迷航。”
And so let me tell you what the big idea is.
听我说明这壮举是什么。
We've used organisms to make biomaterials for years.
多年来我们一直用生物制造生物材料。
So here's a great picture taken outside of Glasgow, and you can see lots of great biomaterials there.
这是在格拉斯哥外拍摄的精美照片，看得到很多很棒的生物材料。
There are trees that you could use to build houses.
有树可以用来建房子。
There are sheep where you can get your wool from.
你可以从羊身上取得羊毛。
You could get leather from the sheep.
你可以从羊身上取得皮革。
Just quickly glancing around the room,
快速浏览这个房间，
I'll bet there's no one in this room that doesn't have some kind of animal or plant product on them, some kind of biomaterial.
我敢打赌这里没有任何人不用某种动物或植物产品，都用某种生物材料。
But you know what? We're not going to take sheep and trees and stuff to Mars.
但你知道吗？我们不打算把羊和树之类的东西带到火星上去。
That's nuts, because of the upmass problem.
由于载重的问题，那样行不通。
But we are going to take things like this.
我们打算采取如下的方式。
This is Bacillus subtilis. Those white dots that you see are spores.
这是枯草芽孢杆菌。那些看得到的白点是孢子。
This happens to be a bacterium that can form incredibly resistant spores,
这恰好是一种可以形成非凡抗性孢子的细菌，
and when I say incredibly resistant, they've proven themselves.
它们已经证明了自己的非凡抗性。
Bacillus subtilis spores have been flown on what was called LDEF, Long Duration Exposure Facility,
枯草芽孢杆菌孢子已经被运送到太空中的长期暴露装置（LDEF）
for almost six years and some of them survived that in space.
上将近六年了，有些幸存了下来。
Unbelievable, a lot better than any of us can do.
令人难以置信，比我们任何人都做得好。
So why not just take the capabilities, like to make wood or to make wool or spider silk or whatever,
那么，为什么不利用这能力来制作木头、羊毛、蜘蛛丝等材料，
and put them in Bacillus subtilis spores, and take those with you off planet?
并放入枯草芽孢杆菌孢子中，你将其带离地球呢？
So what are you going to do when you're off planet?
离开地球后你要怎么做？
Here's an iconic picture of Buzz Aldrin looking back at the Eagle when he landed,
这是航天员巴兹·奥尔德林回头看“鹰”号登月舱的标志性的照片，
oh, it was almost 50 years ago, on the surface of the Moon.
大约是50年前登月时候。
Now if you're going to go to the Moon for three days and you're the first person to set foot,
如果你是第一个踏足月球的人，要在那里待上三天，
yeah, you can live in a tin can, but you wouldn't want to do that for, say, a year and a half.
那么你的确可以住在罐头般的舱里；但是要住上一年半载就不行了。
So I did actually a calculation, being in California.
因此我在加州实际算了一下。
I looked at what the average size of a cell at Alcatraz is, and I have news for you,
我看过恶魔岛禁闭室的平均大小，让我告诉你，
the volume in the Eagle there, in the Lunar Module, was about the size of a cell at Alcatraz if it were only five feet high.
“鹰”号登月舱的大小会和恶魔岛的禁闭室大小差不多，如果舱高只有150公分。
So incredibly cramped living quarters.
生活空间狭窄得如此难以置信。
You just can't ask a human to stay in there for long periods of time.
你无法要求一个人长时间住在那里。
So why not take these biomaterials and make something?
那么何不用这些生物材料制造点什么呢？
So here's an image that a colleague of mine who is an architect, Chris Maurer, has done of what we've been proposing,
我的建筑师同事克里斯·毛雷尔已经完成了我们的提案，
and we'll get to the point of why I've been standing up here holding something that looks like a dried sandwich this whole lecture.
稍后会说明整个讲座中为什么我站在这里，手里一直拿着看似干掉的三明治。
So we've proposed that the solution to the habitat problem on Mars could just simply lie in a fungus.
我们已经提出解决火星栖地的办法可能就在于真菌。
So I'm now probably going to turn off everyone from ever eating a mushroom again.
我接下来提到的可能会使大家以后失去吃蘑菇的兴趣。
So let's talk about fungi for a second.
让我们来谈论一下真菌。
So you're probably familiar with this fruiting body of the fungus. That's the mushroom.
或许你熟悉真菌的子实体，也就是蘑菇。
But what we're interested in actually is what's beneath the surface there, the mycelium,
但我们真正感兴趣的是表面下的东西，菌丝，
which are these root hair-like structures that are really the main part of the mushroom.
这些根状的毛发状结构是蘑菇的主要部分。
Well, it turns out you can take those -- there's a micrograph I did
嗯，事实证明，你可以拿些菌丝，我拍了一张显微照片，
and you can put them in a mold and give them a little food
把菌丝放在模具里，给它们一点食物，
and it doesn't take much, you can grow these things on sawdust
不需要很多，你可以在锯末上种植这些东西，
so this piece here was grown on sawdust, and that mycelium then will fill that structure to make something.
这片生长在锯末上，菌丝会填满这个结构，形成某种东西。
We've actually tried growing mycelium on Mars Simulant.
我们真的在火星模拟环境中试种过菌丝体。
So no one's actually gone to the surface of Mars,
没有人真的去过火星的表面，
but this is a simulated surface of Mars, and you can see those hair-like mycelia out there.
这是模拟的火星的表面，你可以看到外面那些毛发状的菌丝体。
It's really amazing stuff. How strong can you make these things?
真是神奇。你能把这些东西做得多结实？
Well, you know, I could give you numbers and tests and so on, but I think that's probably the best way to describe it.
嗯，我可以提供数据和测试之类，但我认为这可能是最佳的描述方式。
There's one of my students proving that you can do this.
我的一个学生证明了这一点。
To do this, then, you've got to figure out how to put it in context.
为了要做到这一点，你需要弄清楚周遭的环境。
How's this actually going to happen?
这到底是怎么发生的呢？
I mean, this is a great idea, Lynn, but how are you going to get from here to there?
我的意思是，主意是不错，林恩，但要怎么办到呢？
So what we're saying is you grow up the mycelium in the lab,
所以我们说的是你在实验室里培养菌丝，
for example and then you fill up a little structure, maybe a house-like structure that's tiny,
然后例如你填满一个小结构，可能是一个很小的像房子一样的结构，
that is maybe a double-bagged sort of plastic thing, like an inflatable -- I sort of think L.L.Bean when I see this.
大概像充气的双层塑料袋那样吧，看到这个我就会想到L.L.Bean（户外用品网购公司）。
And then you put it in a rocket ship and you send it off to Mars.
把它放入火箭宇宙飞船，送上火星。
Rocket lands, you release the bag and you add a little water, and voila, you've got your habitat.
火箭着陆后，你打开袋子，加一点水，瞧！你就有了自己的栖息地。
You know, how cool would that be?
你知道那会有多酷吗？
And the beauty of that is you don't have to take something prebuilt.
最棒的是你不必预先建造。
And so our estimates are that we could save 90 percent of the mass
因此我们估计我们可以节省90%的质量，
that NASA is currently proposing by taking up a big steel structure if we actually grow it on site.
NASA目前的提议是，如果我们真的在现场种植，就采用大型钢结构。
So let me give you another big idea. What about digital information?
让我再说个好主意。数字信息怎么样？
What's really interesting is you have a physical link to your parents
最有趣的地方是：你与父母有基因上的联系，
and they have a physical link to their parents, and so on, all the way back to the origin of life.
他们与他们的父母也有基因上的联系等等，一直可以回溯到生命的起源。
You have never broken that continuum. But the fact is that we can do that today.
那种连续性从未被打破。但事实上，我们今天就可以做到。
So we have students every day in our labs -- students in Boston even do this
因此，我们实验室每天都有学生，波士顿的学生，在做这个，
that make up DNA sequences and they hit the "send" button and they send them to their local DNA synthesis company.
排序DNA，排好后按“发送”钮，送给当地的DNA合成公司。
Now once you break that physical link where you're sending it across town,
一旦你打破了那从此地送到彼地的联系，
it doesn't matter if you're sending it across the Charles River or if you're sending that information to Mars.
不论是你想把它发送到查尔斯河对岸，或送上火星，这并不是重点。
You've broken that physical link.
你打破了那个基因上的联系。
So then, once you're on Mars, or across the river or wherever,
那么，一旦你在火星上，或者在河对岸或任何地方，
you can take that digital information, synthesize the physical DNA,
你能接收数字信息，合成DNA实体，
put it maybe in another organism and voila, you've got new capabilities there.
把它放在另一个有机体中，你就有了新的能力。
So again, you've broken that physical link. That's huge.
再说一次，你突破了基因上的联系，真棒！
What about chemistry? Biology does chemistry for us on Earth, and again has for literally thousands of years.
化学呢？生物学在地球上为我们做化学反应已经有几千年了。
I bet virtually everyone in this room has eaten something today that has been made by biology doing chemistry.
我敢打赌，几乎这个房间里的每个人今天都吃过生物化学做的东西。
Let me give you a big hint there.
让我给你一个很重要的提示。
What about another idea? What about using DNA itself to make a wire?
另一个想法如何呢？用DNA本身来制作电线怎么样？
Because again, we're trying to miniaturize everything. DNA is really cheap.
再次强调，因为我们在努力缩小一切。DNA非常便宜。
Strawberries have a gazillion amount of DNA.
草莓含有极大量的DNA。
You know, you could take a strawberry with you, isolate the DNA,
你可以随身携带草莓，分离出DNA，
and one of my students has figured out a way to take DNA and tweak it a little bit
我的一个学生已经找到了一种方法获取DNA，略微调整，
so that you can incorporate silver atoms in very specific places, thus making an electrical wire. How cool is that?
将银原子连接在特定之处，从而制成电线。多么酷啊！
So while we're on the subject of metals, we're going to need to use metals for things like integrated circuits.
既然说到了金属，我们需要用金属来做集成电路。
Probably we're going to want it for some structures, and so on.
可能我们会想要把它用在某些结构上之类。
And things like integrated circuits ultimately go bad.
像集成电路这样的东西最终会坏掉。
We could talk a lot about that, but I'm going to leave it at that,
这部分有很多可谈，但我不多说了，
that they do go bad, and so where are you going to get those metals?
当它们坏了的时候，你去哪里找这些金属呢？
Yeah, you could try to mine them with heavy equipment, but you get that upmass problem.
没错，你可以尝试用重型设备挖矿，但是你又碰到了那个载重的问题。
And I always tell people, the best way to find the metals for a new cell phone is in a dead cell phone.
而我总是说，为新手机找金属的最佳方法是回收旧手机的金属。
So what if you take biology as the technology to get these metals out? And how do you do this?
如果用生物学作为获取这些金属的技术呢？怎么做呢？
Well, take a look at the back of a vitamin bottle
看一下维生素瓶的背面，
and you'll get an idea of all the sorts of metals that we actually use in our bodies.
你就会知道我们体内实际上会用到各种金属。
So we have a lot of proteins as well as other organisms that can actually specifically bind metals.
因此，我们有很多蛋白质和其他的生物能够特定的结合金属。
So what if we now take those proteins and maybe attach them to this fungal mycelium and make a filter
如果我们把这些蛋白质附着在这种真菌的菌丝体上制成滤器，
so we can start to pull those metals out in a very specific way without big mining equipment,
那么我们能用非常特殊的方式取出这些金属，不需要大型采矿设备，
and, even better, we've actually got a proof of concept where we've then taken those metals
更棒的是，我们实际上验证了一个概念：我们用那些从蛋白质取出的金属，
that we pulled out with proteins and reprinted an integrated circuit using a plasma printer. Again, how cool?
通过离子打印机重新印出集成电路。再说一遍，多酷啊！
Electricity: I was asked by a head of one of the NASA centers
电力：美国太空总署其中一个中心的负责人问我，
if you could ever take chemical energy and turn that into electrical energy.
是否能把化学能转化成电能。
Well, the great news is it's not just the electric eel that does it.
好消息是不仅电鳗办得到。
Everybody in this room who is still alive and functioning is doing that.
这里的每个活人都在发电。
Part of the food that you've eaten today has gone to operate the nerve cells in your body.
你今天吃的部分食物已用于操作你体内的神经细胞。
But even other organisms, nonsentient ones, are creating electric energy, even bacteria.
即使是“非有知觉的”的其他有机体也正在产生电能。细菌也是。
Some bacteria are very good at making little wires.
有些细菌非常擅长制造小电线。
So if we can harvest that ability of turning chemical energy into electrical energy, again, how cool would that be?
所以，如果我们能把化学能转化为电能，那该有多酷？
So here are some of the big ideas we talked about.
以下是我们谈到的一些重要想法。
Let me try one more: life 2.0.
让我再说一次：生活2.0。
So for example, all of the sugars in our body are right-handed.
例如，我们体内所有的糖都是右旋的。
Why shouldn't we make an organism with left-handed sugars?
为什么我们不制造左旋的有机体呢？
Why not make an organism that can do things that no organism can do today?
为什么不制造一种有机体来做今天别的有机体做不到的事呢？
So organisms normally have evolved to live in very specific environments.
有机体通常已经进化到适应非常特定的环境。
So here's this lion cub literally up a tree, and I took a picture of him a bit later,
这是只爬上了一棵树的小狮子，稍后我给它拍了一张照片，
and he was a lot happier when he was down on the ground.
当他躺在地上的时候，他高兴多了。
So organisms are designed for specific environments.
所以有机体是为特定的环境而设计的。
But what if you can go back to that idea of synthetic biology and tweak 'em around?
但是如果你能回到合成生物学的想法并稍做调整呢？
So here is one of our favorite places in Yellowstone National Park. This is Octopus Springs.
这是我们最喜欢的黄石公园地景之一：章鱼热泉。
If you tilt your head a little bit, it sort of looks like a body and tentacles coming out.
如果你稍微倾斜头部，它看起来就像身体和伸出的触手。
It's above the boiling temperature of water.
这里的温度高于水沸腾的温度。
Those organisms that you see on the edge and the colors actually match the temperatures
在边缘看到的那些生物的颜色实际上与那里的温度相匹配，
that are there, very, very high-temperature thermophiles.
那里有非常非常高温的嗜热菌。
So why not take organisms that can live at extremes,
因此，为什么不拿那些可以生活在极端环境的生物，
whether it's high temperature or low temperature or low pH or high pH or high salt or high levels of radiation,
无论是高温、低温，低pH值或高pH值，高盐或高辐射水平，
and take some of those capabilities and put it into other organisms.
采取一些这些能力，把它放入其他生物体中。
And this is a project that my students have called, and I love this, the "hell cell."
这是我的学生称为“地狱细胞”的项目，我喜欢这个项目。
And so we've done that. We've taken organisms and sort of tweaked them and pushed them to the edges.
我们已经完成了。我们拿有机体，做了一些调整，挑战极限。
And this is important for getting us off planet and also for understanding what life is like in the universe.
这对于让我们离开地球和了解宇宙生命极为重要。
So let me give you just a couple of final thoughts.
最后让我总结几个想法。
First is this whole idea that we have all these needs for human settlement off planet
首先是整体的想法，我们地球人定居外星的所有需求，
that are in some ways exactly like we have on the Earth,
在某种程度上与我们在地球上的完全一样：
that we need the food and we need the shelter and so on,
我们需要食物、住屋等等，
but we have very, very different constraints of this upmass problem and the reliability and the flexibility and so on.
但我们有非常非常不同的限制--载重、可靠性和灵活度等等。
But because we have these constraints that you don't have here,
因为有这些地球上没有的限制，
where you might have to think about the indigenous petrochemical industry, or whatever,
不得不考虑本土的石化行业或其他，
you now have constraints that have to unleash creativity.
这些限制使我们必须发挥创造力。
And once you unleash this creativity because you have the new constraints,
一旦你释放了这种创造力，因为存在新制约之故，
you're forcing game-changing technological advances that you wouldn't have gotten any other way.
你被迫发展改变游戏规则的技术，没有其他的办法。
Finally, we have to think a little bit, is it a good idea to tinker around with life?
最后，我们得要思考修补生命的DNA是个好主意吗？
Well, the sort of easy answer to that is that probably no one in the room keeps a wolf cub at home,
简单的回答是，大概没有人在家里养一窝小狼，
but you might have a puppy or a dog;
但可能有只小狗；
you probably didn't eat teosinte this summer, but you ate corn.
今年夏天你可能没吃蜀黍，但是吃了玉米。
We have been doing genetic modification with organisms for literally 10,000 or more years.
生物的基因改造已经持续一万年或更长时间。
This is a different approach, but to say all of a sudden humans should never touch an organism is kinda silly
这是不同的做法，但是突然说人类永远不应该摆弄有机体的基因就有点蠢，
because we have that capability now to do things that are far more beneficial for the planet Earth and for life beyond that.
因为我们现在有能力去做对地球和生命极为有利的事情。
And so then the question is, should we?
那么问题是，我们应该吗？
And of course I feel that not only should we, at least for getting off Earth,
当然，我觉得我们不仅应该--至少是为了离开地球，
but actually if we don't use synthetic biology, we will never solve this upmass problem.
但实际上如果我们不用合成生物学，我们永远解决不了载重的问题。
So once you think of life as a technology, you've got the solution.
因此一旦将生命视为一项技术，你就拥有了解决方案。
And so, with that, I'd like to finish the way I always finish,
说到这里，我想以我一贯的方式结束，
and say "ad astra," which means, "to the stars." Thank you very much, Boston.
说“adastra”，意思是“前往星际”。非常感谢你，波士顿。
