1.It is a thrill to be here at a conference that’s devoted to “Inspired by Nature” — you can imagine.
各位可以想象 ， 我今天有多高兴，能够在这里参加这个 探究“自然之奥秘”的会议。
2.And I’m also thrilled to be in the foreplay section.
我也很开心被安排在“前戏”这一节。
3.Did you notice this section is foreplay?
你们有没有注意到这一节演说是前戏？
4.Because I get to talk about one of my favorite critters, which is the Western Grebe. You haven’t lived until you’ve seen these guys do their courtship dance.
因为我可以谈谈我最喜欢的生物之一， 那就是北美鹓鷉。 那就是北美鹓鷉。 你一辈子一定要看看这些傢伙跳过求偶舞之后，你才算没白活。
5.I was on Bowman Lake in Glacier National Park, which is a long, skinny lake with sort of mountains upside down in it, and my partner and I have a rowing shell.
我当时在蒙大拿冰河国家公园的波曼湖上， 那是一个狭长的湖，湖面上有群峰的倒影， 我和我的同伴划一艘小船。
6.And so we were rowing, and one of these Western Grebes came along.
当我们在划船的时候，来了一只北美鹓鷉。
7.And what they do for their courtship dance is, they go together, the two of them, the two mates, and they begin to run underwater.
他们的求偶舞就是，两只北美鹓鷉， 两只这样并排在一起，开始在水面下奔跑。
8.They paddle faster, and faster, and faster, until they’re going so fast that they literally lift up out of the water, and they’re standing upright, sort of paddling the top of the water.
它们的双蹼愈划愈快，愈划愈快， 快到最后身体从水中腾起， 身体直立，就像是轻功水上飘一般，在水面上奔跑。
9.And one of these Grebes came along while we were rowing.
我们划船的时候，来了一只北美鹓鷉。
10.And so we’re in a skull, and we’re moving really, really quickly.
我们划着小船，划得非常非常快。
11.And this Grebe, I think, sort of, mistaked us for a prospect, and started to run along the water next to us, in a courtship dance — for miles.
而这只鹓鷉，我猜，大概是把我们误认为可能的对象， 开始在我们旁边的水域跑了起来， 跳着求偶舞，跑了好几英里。
12.It would stop, and then start, and then stop, and then start.
它会停下来，又开始，停下来，又开始。
13.Now that is foreplay.
这，就叫前戏吧！
14.(Laughter) OK. I almost — I came this close to changing species at that moment.
（笑声） 好，我承认，我当时差一点就要改当鹓鷉了。
15.Obviously, life can teach us something in the entertainment section, OK. Life has a lot to teach us.
在娱乐方面，生命显然可以教导我们一些事情 生命其实可以教导我们的很多。
16.But what I’d like to talk about today is what life might teach us in technology and in design.
但是，今天我所要谈的 是在科技与设计领域，生命可以教我们什么。
17.What’s happened since the book came out — the book was mainly about research in biomimicry.
我写了一本讲仿生学的书 自从我的书出版以后
18.And what’s happened since then is architects, designers, engineers — people who make our world — have started to call and say, we want a biologist to sit at the design table
建筑师、设计师、工程师 那些打造我们这个世界的人，开始打电话给我说， “我们想要一个生物学家跟我们一起坐在设计桌旁，
19.to help us, in real time, become inspired.
即时帮助我们启发灵感。”
20.Or — and this is the fun part for me — we want you to take us out into the natural world. We’ll come with a design challenge and we find the champion adapters in the natural world, who might inspire us.
或者，这是我喜欢的部份，“我们希望你带我们 到自然界中探险。我们会带着设计上的难题 然后在自然界中找到可以给我们提供灵感的那些适存者。”
21.So this is a picture from a Galapagos trip that we took with some wastewater treatment engineers; they purify wastewater.
这张照片是我们去加拉巴哥旅行时拍的。 同行的是一群废水处理工程师；他们的工作是纯化废水。
22.And some of them were very resistant, actually, to being there.
他们当中有些人其实很不想去。
23.What they said to us at first was, you know, we already do biomimicry.
一开始他们跟我们说，”我们已经在应用彷生学了。”
24.We use bacteria to clean our water. And we said, well, it’s not exactly — that’s not exactly being inspired by nature.
“我们用细菌来处理废水。” 我们说，嗯，这并不算是从大自然中找灵感。
25.That’s bio-processing, you know; That’s bio-assisted technology: using an organism to do your wastewater treatment is an old, old technology called “domestication.”
那是生物处理， 是生物辅助技术： 使用生物来处理废水 是一种非常、非常古老的技术，叫做” 驯养。”
26.This is learning something, learning an idea, from an organism and then applying it.
彷生学是从生物上学习，得到灵感并加以应用。
27.And so they still weren’t getting it.
然而他们还是不懂。
28.So we went for a walk on the beach and I said, well, give me one of your big problems. Give me a design challenge, sustainability speed bump, that’s keeping you from being sustainable.
所以我们在海滩上走着，我说， 提出一个你们最大的困难给我。给我一个你们在设计上遇到的难题， 在可持续性方面的绊脚石，一个让你们的设计达不到可持续性的问题。
29.And they said scaling, which is the build up of minerals inside of pipes.
他们回答：水垢，也就是矿物质在水管里沉积。
30.And they said, you know what happens is, mineral — just like at your house — mineral builds up.
大家知道，就跟家里的水垢一样，矿物质会沉积。 大家知道，就跟家里的水垢一样，矿物质会沉积。
31.And then the aperture closes, and we have to flush the pipes with toxins, or we have to dig them up.
然后水管会被阻塞，我们就必须用有毒的溶剂去冲洗水管， 或是使用物理方法把它们挖出来。
32.So if we had some way to stop this scaling — and so I picked up some shells on the beach. And I asked them, What is scaling? What’s inside your pipes?
所以如果能够阻止水垢沉积… 听完以后我捡起海滩上的一 些贝壳。我问他们， 水垢是什麽？水管里的东西是什么？
33.And they said, calcium carbonate.
他们说，碳酸钙。
34.And I said, that’s what this is; this is calcium carbonate.
然后我就说，这就是了; 贝壳也是碳酸钙。
35.And they didn’t know that.
他们本来不知道这件事。
36.They didn’t know that what a seashell is, it’s templated by proteins, and then ions from the seawater crystallize in place, OK, to create a shell.
他们不知道贝壳其实是, 由蛋白质组成的模板， 然后海水中的离子在模板上结晶，就这样形成贝壳。
37.So the same sort of a process, without the proteins, is happening on the inside of their pipes. They didn’t know.
所以类似的程序，只是少了蛋白质， 也在他们的水管中发生，但他们并不知道。
38.This is not for lack of information; it’s a lack of integration.
这并不是缺少信息，而是缺乏整合 。
39.You know, it’s a silo, people in silos. They didn’t know that the same thing was happening. So one of them thought about it and said, OK, well, if this is just crystallization
是隔行如隔山，彼此缺乏交流。 他们不知道同样的事情也在其他领域发生。 他们当中有个人想了想说，好，
40.that happens automatically out of seawater — self-assembly — then why aren’t shells infinite in size? What stops the scaling?
如果这只是结晶现象在海水中自然产生，自我组装， 为什么贝壳不会长到无限大？是什么停止了沉积过程？
41.Why don’t they just keep on going?
贝壳为什么不会一直生长下去？
42.And I said, well, in the same way that they let go of pro — that they exude a protein and it starts the crystallization — and then they all sort of leaned in —
我说，就像它们释放蛋白质，并且启动结晶现象… 我说，就像它们释放蛋白质，并且启动结晶现象… 这时工程师们都靠了过来，
43.they let go of protein that stops the crystallization.
贝壳也会释放蛋白质来中止结晶现象。
44.It literally adheres to the growing face of the crystal.
蛋白质会吸附在结晶生长的那一面。
45.And, in fact, there is a product called TPA that’s mimicked that protein — that stop protein — and it’s an environmentally friendly way to stop scaling in pipes.
事实上，有一种叫做 TPA 的产品 它模彷了这个终止蛋白 这是一个环保的方法，可以避免水管长水垢。
46.That changed everything. From then on, you could not get these engineers back in the boat.
这改变了一切。在那之后， 这些工程师都舍不得回到船上。
47.The first day they would take a hike, and it was, click, click, click, click. Five minutes later they were back in the boat.
行程第一天他们会走一小段路， 喀嚓、喀嚓、喀嚓，拍个五分钟后就回到船上。
48.We’re done. You know, I’ve seen that island.
“好了，这个岛看过了。”
49.After this, they were crawling all over. They would not get — they would snorkel for as long as we would let them snorkel.
但在这之后， 但在这之后， 他们到处爬来爬去。 他们一直浮潜，潜到最后一刻非走不可才起来。
50.What had happened was that they realized that there were organisms out there that had already solved the problems that they had spent their careers trying to solve.
因为他们体会到自然界中已经有生物体， 解决了 他们一辈子努力想解决的难题
51.Learning about the natural world is one thing, learning from the natural world — that’s the switch.
认识自然界是一回事， 向自然界学习，这才是转变的开始。
52.That’s the profound switch.
这是一个意义深刻的转变。
53.What they realized was that the answers to their questions are everywhere; they just needed to change the lenses with which they saw the world.
他们了解到，问题的答案处处皆是； 只需要改变观察这个世界的视角。
54.3.8 billion years of field testing.
自然界的生物是38 亿年的实地测验。
55.10 to 30 — Craig Venter will probably tell you; I think there’s a lot more than 30 million — well-adapted solutions.
克莱格?凡特可能会跟你说有 1千万－3千万， 我却认为自然界里有远远超过3千万种适应良好的解决方案。
56.The important thing for me is that these are solutions solved in context.
对我来说重点在于，这些解决方案考虑了整体环境。
57.And the context is the Earth — the same context that we’re trying to solve our problems in.
这个整体环境就是地球。 我们要解决的问题，也存在同样的整体环境里。
58.So it’s the conscious emulation of life’s genius.
我们要有意识地向自然界的天才学习，
59.It’s not slavishly mimicking — although Al is trying to get the hairdo going — it’s not a slavish mimicry. It’s taking the design principles,
而不是全盘照抄。 虽说爱因斯坦的发型是想要模彷… 不是全盘照抄，而是找出设计原则，
60.the genius of the natural world, and learning something from it.
找出自然界的天才，从中学习。
61.Now, in a group with so many IT people, I do have to mention that — one I’m not going to talk about, and that is that your field is one that has learned an enormous amount from living things,
在场有许多IT行业的人士，我必须提一下 演讲正文不会提到的， IT行业向生物界借鉴，在软件方面已经学到很多。
62.on the software side. So there’s computers that protect themselves, like an immune system, and we’re learning from gene regulation and biological development. And we’re learning from neural nets,
所以有能自我保护的电脑， 就像免疫系统一样。 其他效法的实例还有基因调控、 生物发展、神经网路
63.genetic algorithms, evolutionary computing.
基因演算法、演化计算
64.That’s on the software side. But what’s interesting to me is that we haven’t looked at this, as much. I mean, these machines are really not very high tech in my estimation
那是在软件的层面。但令我感兴趣的是 我们还没有开始考虑，这些机器（硬件部份） 这些机器在我看来不算高科技
65.in the sense that there’s dozens and dozens of carcinogens in the water in Silicon Valley.
因为硅谷的水里 有好几十种致癌物
66.So the hardware is not at all up to snuff in terms of what life would call a success.
因此在硬件方面 以生命的观点来看根本称不上成功的设计。
67.So what can we learn about making — not just computers, but everything?
在制造方面，我们可以学到什么？不只针对电脑，我指所有东西的制造。
68.The plane you came in, cars, the seats that you’re sitting on.
大家搭的飞机、汽车、坐的椅子
69.How do we redesign the world that we make, the human-made world?
我们如何重新设计我们所制造的世界，这个人造世界？
70.More importantly, what should we ask in the next 10 years?
更重要的是，未来十年，我们的目标应该是什么？
71.And there’s a lot of cool technologies out there that life has.
自然界的生命有数不清的有趣科技。
72.What’s the syllabus?
我们的课程大纲该是什麽？
73.Three questions, for me, are key.
对我来说，有三个问题是关键。
74.How does life make things?
生命如何制造东西？
75.This is the opposite; this is how we make things.
我们制造东西的方法与自然恰是两个极端。
76.It’s called heat, beat and treat — that’s what material scientists call it.
我们的方法是加热、加压、化学处理， 这是材料科学家的说法。
77.And it’s carving things down from the top, with 96 percent waste left over and only 4 percent product. You heat it up, you beat it with high pressures,
这个方法从开始到结束，产生了 96% 的废物 只有 4% 是成品。加热，施加高压，
78.you use chemicals. OK. Heat, beat and treat.
再用化学药物处理。加热、加压、化学处理。
79.Life can’t afford to do that. How does life make things?
生命没办法这么制造。
80.How does life make the most of things?
那生命如何制造东西？
81.That’s a geranium pollen.
这是天竺葵花粉。
82.And its shape is what gives it the function of being able to tumble through air so easily, OK. Look at that shape.
它的形状让使得能轻易地在空中漂浮 你看看它的形状
83.Life adds information to matter.
生命在物质上加入信息
84.In other words: structure.
换言之就是结构
85.It gives it information. By adding information to matter, it gives it a function that’s different than without that structure.
结构包含信息。物质加上信息 就有了功能，如果没有结构就会有不同的功能。
86.And thirdly, how does life make things disappear into systems?
第三，生命如何让东西消失到系统裡？
87.Because life doesn’t really deal in things; there are no things in the natural world divorced from their systems.
因为生命处理的并不是东西 自然界中没有什么东西是与系统脱节的。 自然界中没有什么东西是与系统脱节的。
88.Really quick syllabus.
一个很简短的课程大纲。
89.As I’m reading more and more now, and following the story, there are some amazing things coming up in the biological sciences.
当我顺着这个题材，阅读愈来愈多相关资料的同时， 生物科学界有了一些惊奇的发现。
90.And at the same time, I’m listening to a lot of businesses and finding what their sort of grand challenges are.
在此同时，我倾听许多企业的声音 了解他们面临怎样的大挑战。
91.The two groups are not talking to each other.
这两个团体缺乏对话。
92.At all.
完全没有。
93.What in the world of biology might be helpful at this juncture, to get us through this sort of evolutionary knothole that we’re in?
此时此刻，生物学的世界也许能帮上忙, 帮助我们在这演化的节骨眼渡过难关。
94.I’m going to try to go through 12, really quickly.
下面我会很快地带过 12 个重点。
95.OK, one that’s exciting to me is self-assembly.
好，我很有兴趣的是自我组装。
96.Now, you’ve heard about this in terms of nanotechnology.
大家在纳米科技的领域裡面听过这个名词。
97.Back to that shell: the shell is a self-assembling material.
回到贝壳：贝壳本身就是一个自我组装的材料。
98.On the lower left there is a picture of mother of pearl forming out of sea water. It’s a layered structure that’s mineral and then polymer, and it makes it very, very tough.
左下方是珠母贝的照片。 它在海水中成形，是一个矿物质 和聚合物相间的层状结构 所以非常非常坚硬
99.It’s twice as tough as our high-tech ceramics.
硬度是高科技陶瓷的两倍
100.But what’s really interesting: unlike our ceramics that are in kilns, it happens in sea water. It happens near, in and near, the organism’s body.
但是有趣的是：我们的陶瓷要在高温窑炉中烧制 贝壳却是在海水中产生，在非常靠近生物体的地方产生
101.OK, people are starting — this is Sandia National Labs; a guy named Jeff Brinker has found a way to have a self-assembling coding process.
现在大家开始尝试… Sandia 国家实验室中有一位 Jeff Brinker， 他找到一个方法，做出自我组装的编码程序。
102.Imagine being able to make ceramics at room temperature by simply dipping something into a liquid, lifting it out of the liquid, and having evaporation
想像一下，在室温下就能制造陶瓷， 只要把某个东西浸入一种液体中， 再从液体中移出，蒸发干，
103.force the molecules in the liquid together, so that they jigsaw together in the same way as this crystallization works.
强迫液体中的分子紧密排列， 像拼图一样结合在一起， 就跟结晶生成的方式一样。
104.Imagine making all of our hard materials that way.
想像有一天，所有坚硬材质都能这样被制造出。
105.Imagine spraying the precursors to a PV cell, to a solar cell, onto a roof, and having it self-assemble into a layered structure that harvests light.
或是喷洒前驱波到硒电池，太阳能板上， 放到屋顶上面，让它自我组装成可以转换光能的层状结构。
106.Here’s an interesting one for the IT world: bio-silicon. This is a diatom, which is made of silicates.
下面这个是IT行业会有兴趣的： 生物硅。这是硅藻，它是由硅酸盐所组成的。
107.And so silicon, which we make right now — it’s part of our carcinogenic problem in the manufacture of our chips — this is a bio-mineralization process that’s now being mimicked.
我们现在制造硅元素… 也就是制造晶片时，会产生致癌物的问题。 现在有人开始尝试模彷这个生物矿化的过程。
108.This is at UC Santa Barbara. Look at these diatoms; this is from Ernst Haeckel’s work.
这是加州大学圣塔芭芭拉分校。看看这些硅藻。 这是 Ernst Haeckel 的研究。
109.Imagine being able to — and, again, it’s a templated process, and it solidifies out of a liquid process — imagine being able to have that
想像我们能够… 同样的，这个过程也需要一块模板起头 再从液体中固化产生
110.sort of structure coming out at room temperature.
想像有一天
111.Imagine being able to make perfect lenses.
我们能制造完美的镜片
112.On the left, this is a brittle star; it’s covered with lenses that the people at Lucent Technologies have found have no distortion whatsoever.
左边是一只阳燧足，它全身都是镜片。 朗讯科技的研究人员发现 这些镜片完全没有成像变形的问题
113.It’s one of the most distortion-free lenses we know of.
这是据我们所知最没有成像变形的一种镜片。
114.And there’s many of them, all over its entire body.
阳隧足全身布满了这些镜片。
115.What’s interesting, again, is that it self-assembles.
有趣的是，这也是自我组装的产物。
116.A woman named Joanna Aizenberg, at Lucent, is now learning to do this in a low-temperature process to create these sort of lenses. She’s also looking at fiber optics.
朗讯科技有一位叫做 Joanna Aizenberg 的女研究员， 她正在学习如何以低温过程来做出这种镜片。 她同样也研究光纤。
117.That’s a sea sponge that has a fiber optic.
这是一种海绵，
118.Down at the very base of it, there’s fiber optics that work better than ours, actually, to move light.
它身体最底部有光纤，这些就是光纤。 这种光纤传播光线的效果比人造光纤还要好。
119.but you can tie them in a knot; they’re incredibly flexible.
而且还可以打结；这种光纤弹性相当好。
120.Here’s another big idea: CO2 as a feedstock.
这是另外一个重要的概念：以二氧化碳当原料。
121.A guy named Geoff Coates, at Cornell, said to himself, you know, plants do not see CO2 as the biggest poison of our time.
康乃尔大学有一位 Geoff Coates，他心想 植物不像我们，把二氧化碳当成这世代最严重的毒害
122.We see it that way. Plants are busy making long chains of starches and glucose, right, out of CO2. He’s found a way — he’s found a catalyst, and he’s found a way to take CO2
那是我们的看法 植物则忙着用二氧化碳合成出长链的淀粉和葡萄糖 他发现了一种催化剂，
123.and make it into polycarbonates. Biodegradable plastics out of CO2 — how plant-like.
也找到方法能将二氧化碳变成聚碳酸酯。 用二氧化碳做出生物分解性塑胶 — 这多像植物啊。
124.Solar transformations: the most exciting one.
太阳能转换：这是最令人兴奋的一个。
125.There are people who are mimicking the energy-harvesting device inside of purple bacterium, the people at ASU. Even more interesting,
现在有些人在模彷紫色细菌体内 能源采集装置 这些人来自亚力桑那州立大学
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