What happens when biology becomes technology?
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0:01 - 0:04A briefcase full of poop changed my life.
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0:05 - 0:07Ten years ago, I was a graduate student
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0:07 - 0:09and I was helping judge
a genetic engineering competition -
0:09 - 0:11for undergrads.
-
0:11 - 0:15There, I met a British artist and designer
named Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg. -
0:15 - 0:17She was wearing the white
embroidered polo shirt -
0:17 - 0:19of the University of Cambridge team
-
0:19 - 0:20and holding a silver briefcase,
-
0:20 - 0:24like the kind that you would imagine
is handcuffed to your wrist. -
0:24 - 0:25She gestured over from a quiet corner
-
0:26 - 0:28and asked me if I wanted to see something.
-
0:28 - 0:30With a sneaky look,
she opened up the suitcase, -
0:30 - 0:35and inside were six glorious,
multicolored turds. -
0:36 - 0:37The Cambridge team, she explained,
-
0:37 - 0:40had spent their summer
engineering the bacteria E. coli -
0:40 - 0:43to be able to sense different things
in the environment -
0:43 - 0:46and produce a rainbow
of different colors in response. -
0:46 - 0:48Arsenic in your drinking water?
-
0:48 - 0:49This strain would turn green.
-
0:49 - 0:52She and her collaborator,
the designer James King, -
0:52 - 0:55worked with the students and imagined
the different possible scenarios -
0:55 - 0:57of how you might use these bacteria.
-
0:57 - 0:59What if, they asked, you could use them
-
0:59 - 1:03as a living probiotic drink
and health monitor, all in one? -
1:04 - 1:07You could drink the bacteria
and it would live in your gut, -
1:07 - 1:08sensing what's going on,
-
1:08 - 1:10and then in response to something,
-
1:10 - 1:12it would be able to produce
a colored output. -
1:12 - 1:13Holy shit!
-
1:13 - 1:15The Cambridge team went on to win
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1:15 - 1:18the International Genetically Engineered
Machine competition, -
1:18 - 1:19or iGEM for short.
-
1:19 - 1:22And as for me, those turds
were a turning point. -
1:23 - 1:24I am a synthetic biologist,
-
1:24 - 1:28which is probably a weird term
that most people aren't familiar with. -
1:28 - 1:30It definitely sounds like an oxymoron.
-
1:30 - 1:32How can biology, something natural,
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1:32 - 1:33be synthetic?
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1:33 - 1:36How can something artificial be alive?
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1:37 - 1:39Synthetic biologists sort of poke holes
-
1:39 - 1:43in that boundary that we draw between
what is natural and what's technological. -
1:43 - 1:46And every year, iGEM students
from all over the world -
1:46 - 1:47spend their summer
-
1:47 - 1:50trying to engineer biology
to be technology. -
1:50 - 1:53They teach bacteria how to play sudoku,
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1:53 - 1:56they make multicolored spider silk,
-
1:56 - 1:58they make self-healing concrete
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1:58 - 2:01and tissue printers
and plastic-eating bacteria. -
2:01 - 2:03Up until that moment, though,
-
2:03 - 2:06I was a little bit more concerned
with a different kind of oxymoron. -
2:06 - 2:08Just plain old genetic engineering.
-
2:08 - 2:10The comedian Simon Munnery once wrote
-
2:10 - 2:15that genetic engineering is actually
insulting to proper engineering. -
2:15 - 2:19Genetic engineering is more like throwing
a bunch of concrete and steel in a river -
2:19 - 2:22and if somebody can walk across,
you call it a bridge. -
2:22 - 2:25And so synthetic biologists
were pretty worried about this, -
2:25 - 2:29and worried that genetic engineering
was a little bit more art that science. -
2:29 - 2:33They wanted to turn genetic engineering
into a real engineering discipline, -
2:33 - 2:37where we could program cells and write DNA
-
2:37 - 2:41the way that engineers write
software for computers. -
2:41 - 2:46That day 10 years ago started me on a path
that gets me to where I am now. -
2:46 - 2:47Today, I'm the creative director
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2:47 - 2:50at a synthetic biology company
called Ginkgo Bioworks. -
2:50 - 2:52"Creative director" is a weird title
-
2:52 - 2:55for a biotech company
were people try to program life -
2:55 - 2:57the way that we program computers.
-
2:57 - 2:59But that day when I met Daisy,
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2:59 - 3:01I learned something about engineering.
-
3:01 - 3:04I learned that engineering
isn't really just about equations -
3:04 - 3:06and steel and circuits,
-
3:06 - 3:08it's actually about people.
-
3:08 - 3:10It's something that people do,
and it impacts us. -
3:10 - 3:12So in my work,
-
3:12 - 3:15I try to open up new spaces
for different kinds of engineering. -
3:16 - 3:18How can we ask better questions,
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3:18 - 3:20and can we have better conversations
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3:20 - 3:22about what we want
from the future of technology? -
3:22 - 3:25How can we understand the technological
-
3:25 - 3:28but also social and political
and economic reasons -
3:28 - 3:30that GMOs are so polarizing
in our society? -
3:30 - 3:32Can we make GMOs that people love?
-
3:33 - 3:39Can we use biology to make technology
that's more expansive and regenerative? -
3:39 - 3:43I think it starts by recognizing
that we, as synthetic biologists, -
3:43 - 3:47are also shaped by a culture
that values "real engineering" -
3:47 - 3:49more than any of the squishy stuff.
-
3:50 - 3:54We get so caught up in circuits
and what happens inside of computers, -
3:54 - 3:57that we sometimes lose sight of the magic
that's happening inside of us. -
3:57 - 4:00There is plenty of shitty
technology out there, -
4:00 - 4:04but this was the first time
that I imagined poop as technology. -
4:04 - 4:08I began to see that synthetic
biology was awesome, -
4:08 - 4:11not because we could turn
cells into computers, -
4:11 - 4:14but because we could bring
technology to life. -
4:14 - 4:15This was technology that was visceral,
-
4:16 - 4:19an unforgettable vision
of what the future might hold. -
4:19 - 4:21But importantly, it was also
framed as the question -
4:21 - 4:24"Is this the kind of future
that we actually want?" -
4:24 - 4:26We've been promised a future of chrome,
-
4:26 - 4:29but what if the future is fleshy?
-
4:29 - 4:31Science and science fiction
-
4:31 - 4:34help us remember
that we're made of star stuff. -
4:34 - 4:36But can it also help us remember
the wonder and weirdness -
4:36 - 4:38of being made of flesh?
-
4:38 - 4:39Biology is us,
-
4:39 - 4:42it's our bodies, it's what we eat.
-
4:42 - 4:45What happens when biology
becomes technology? -
4:46 - 4:48These images are questions,
-
4:48 - 4:51and they challenge what we think of
as normal and desirable. -
4:52 - 4:55And they also show us
that the future is full of choices -
4:55 - 4:57and that we could choose differently.
-
4:57 - 5:01What's the future of the body, of beauty?
-
5:01 - 5:04If we change the body,
will we have new kinds of awareness? -
5:05 - 5:07And will new kinds of awareness
of the microbial world -
5:07 - 5:09change the way that we eat?
-
5:09 - 5:13The last chapter of my dissertation
was all about cheese that I made -
5:13 - 5:16using bacteria that I swabbed
from in between my toes. -
5:16 - 5:18I told you that the poop changed my life.
-
5:18 - 5:21I worked with the smell artist
and researcher Sissel Tolaas -
5:21 - 5:26to explore all of the ways
that our bodies and cheese are connected -
5:26 - 5:29through smell and therefore microbes.
-
5:29 - 5:31And we created this cheese
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5:31 - 5:33to challenge how we think
about the bacteria -
5:33 - 5:35that's part of our lives
-
5:35 - 5:37and the bacteria
that we work with in the lab. -
5:37 - 5:40We are, indeed, what we eat.
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5:40 - 5:42The intersection of biology and technology
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5:42 - 5:46is more often told as a story
of transcending our fleshy realities. -
5:46 - 5:48If you can upload
your brain to a computer, -
5:48 - 5:50you don't need to poop anymore after all.
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5:50 - 5:53And that's usually a story
that's told as a good thing, right? -
5:53 - 5:59Because computers are clean,
and biology is messy. -
5:59 - 6:01Computers make sense and are rational,
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6:01 - 6:04and biology is an unpredictable tangle.
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6:05 - 6:07It kind of follows from there
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6:07 - 6:10that science and technology
are supposed to be rational, -
6:10 - 6:11objective
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6:11 - 6:13and pure,
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6:13 - 6:16and it's humans that are a total mess.
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6:16 - 6:19But like synthetic biologists poke holes
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6:19 - 6:22in that line between nature
and technology, -
6:22 - 6:24artists, designers and social scientists
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6:24 - 6:28showed me that the lines that we draw
between nature, technology and society -
6:29 - 6:31are a little bit softer
than we might think. -
6:31 - 6:34They challenge us to reconsider
our visions for the future -
6:34 - 6:37and our fantasies
about controlling nature. -
6:37 - 6:41They show us how our prejudices,
our hopes and our values -
6:41 - 6:43are embedded in science and technology
-
6:43 - 6:46through the questions that we ask
and the choices that we make. -
6:46 - 6:51They make visible the ways
that science and technology are human -
6:51 - 6:52and therefore political.
-
6:52 - 6:55What does it mean for us
to be able to control life -
6:55 - 6:56for our own purposes?
-
6:56 - 6:58The artists Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr
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6:58 - 7:00made a project
called "Victimless Leather," -
7:00 - 7:03where they engineered
a tiny leather jacket -
7:03 - 7:05out of mouse cells.
-
7:05 - 7:07Is this jacket alive?
-
7:07 - 7:10What does it take to grow it
and keep it this way? -
7:10 - 7:12Is it really victimless?
-
7:12 - 7:15And what does it mean
for something to be victimless? -
7:15 - 7:16The choices that we make
-
7:16 - 7:20in what we show and what we hide
in our stories of progress, -
7:20 - 7:23are often political choices
that have real consequences. -
7:24 - 7:28How will genetic technologies
shape the way that we understand ourselves -
7:28 - 7:29and define our bodies?
-
7:29 - 7:32The artist Heather Dewey-Hagborg
made these faces -
7:32 - 7:35based on DNA sequences
she extracted from sidewalk litter, -
7:35 - 7:38forcing us to ask questions
about genetic privacy, -
7:38 - 7:42but also how and whether
DNA can really define us. -
7:42 - 7:45How will we fight against
and cope with climate change? -
7:45 - 7:48Will we change the way
that we make everything, -
7:48 - 7:52using biological materials
that can grow and decay alongside us? -
7:52 - 7:54Will we change our own bodies?
-
7:54 - 7:56Or nature itself?
-
7:56 - 8:00Or can we change the system
that keeps reinforcing those boundaries -
8:00 - 8:03between science, society,
nature and technology? -
8:03 - 8:08Relationships that today keep us
locked in these unsustainable patterns. -
8:08 - 8:10How we understand and respond to crises
-
8:10 - 8:13that are natural, technical
and social all at once, -
8:13 - 8:15from coronavirus to climate change,
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8:15 - 8:17is deeply political,
-
8:17 - 8:20and science never happens in a vacuum.
-
8:20 - 8:21Let's go back in time
-
8:21 - 8:24to when the first European settlers
arrived in Hawaii. -
8:24 - 8:28They eventually brought their cattle
and their scientists with them. -
8:28 - 8:30The cattle roamed the hillsides,
-
8:30 - 8:33trampling and changing
the ecosystems as they went. -
8:33 - 8:37The scientists catalogued the species
that they found there, -
8:37 - 8:40often taking the last specimen
before they went extinct. -
8:40 - 8:42This is the Maui hau kuahiwi,
-
8:42 - 8:45or the Hibiscadelphus wilderianus,
-
8:45 - 8:47so named by Gerrit Wilder in 1910.
-
8:47 - 8:50By 1912, it was extinct.
-
8:50 - 8:53I found this specimen
in the Harvard University Herbarium, -
8:53 - 8:57where it's housed with five million
other specimens from all over the world. -
8:57 - 9:00I wanted to take a piece
of science's past, -
9:00 - 9:02tied up as it was with colonialism,
-
9:02 - 9:04and all of the embedded ideas
-
9:04 - 9:08of the way that nature and science
and society should work together, -
9:08 - 9:11and ask questions about science's future.
-
9:11 - 9:13Working with an awesome team at Ginkgo,
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9:13 - 9:15and others at UC Santa Cruz,
-
9:15 - 9:18we were able to extract
a little bit of the DNA -
9:18 - 9:20from a tiny sliver of this plant specimen
-
9:20 - 9:22and to sequence the DNA inside.
-
9:22 - 9:25And then resynthesize a possible version
-
9:25 - 9:29of the genes that made
the smell of the plant. -
9:29 - 9:31By inserting those genes into yeast,
-
9:31 - 9:34we could produce little bits of that smell
-
9:34 - 9:35and be able to, maybe, smell
-
9:35 - 9:38a little bit of something
that's lost forever. -
9:38 - 9:40Working again with Daisy
and Sissel Tolaas, -
9:40 - 9:42my collaborator on the cheese project,
-
9:42 - 9:46we reconstructed and composed
a new smell of that flower, -
9:46 - 9:49and created an installation
where people could experience it, -
9:49 - 9:53to be part of this natural history
and synthetic future. -
9:54 - 9:57Ten years ago, I was a synthetic biologist
-
9:57 - 10:00worried that genetic engineering
was more art than science -
10:00 - 10:01and that people were too messy
-
10:01 - 10:03and biology was too complicated.
-
10:04 - 10:07Now I use genetic engineering as art
-
10:07 - 10:10to explore all the different ways
that we are entangled together -
10:10 - 10:12and imagine different possible futures.
-
10:12 - 10:14A fleshy future
-
10:14 - 10:17is one that does recognize
all those interconnections -
10:17 - 10:20and the human realities of technology.
-
10:20 - 10:23But it also recognizes
the incredible power of biology, -
10:23 - 10:25its resilience and sustainability,
-
10:25 - 10:28its ability to heal and grow and adapt.
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10:28 - 10:30Values that are so necessary
-
10:30 - 10:33for the visions of the futures
that we can have today. -
10:33 - 10:35Technology will shape that future,
-
10:35 - 10:37but humans make technology.
-
10:38 - 10:40How we decide what that future will be
-
10:40 - 10:42is up to all of us.
-
10:43 - 10:44Thank you.
- Title:
- What happens when biology becomes technology?
- Speaker:
- Christina Agapakis
- Description:
-
"We've been promised a future of chrome -- but what if the future is fleshy?" asks biological designer Christina Agapakis. In this awe-inspiring talk, Agapakis details her work in synthetic biology -- a multidisciplinary area of research that pokes holes in the line between what's natural and artificial -- and shares how breaking down the boundaries between science, society, nature and technology can lead us to imagine different possible futures.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 10:58
Erin Gregory edited English subtitles for What happens when biology becomes technology? | ||
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Ivana Korom edited English subtitles for What happens when biology becomes technology? |