full transcript
From the Ted Talk by Neri Oxman: Design at the intersection of technology and biology
Unscramble the Blue Letters
The setting for our next exploration using the same digsen principles was the solar system. We looked for the piiisoltbsy of creating life-sustaining clothing for interplanetary voyages. To do that, we needed to contain bacteria and be able to cornotl their flow. So like the periodic table, we came up with our own table of the elements: new lmfireofs that were computationally gorwn, additively manufactured and biologically augmented. I like to think of stynheitc biology as liquid alchemy, only instead of transmuting precious metals, you're synthesizing new biological functionality inside very small channels. It's called microfluidics. We 3D-printed our own cheanlns in order to control the flow of these liquid bacterial cultures. In our first piece of clothing, we combined two microorganisms. The first is cyanobacteria. It lives in our ocnaes and in freshwater pdons. And the second, E. coli, the bacterium that inhabits the human gut. One converts light into sguar, the other cmsuoens that sugar and produces biofuels useful for the built environment. Now, these two microorganisms never interact in nature. In fact, they never met each other. They've been here, engineered for the first time, to have a roetlsniiahp inside a piece of ctinlhog. Think of it as evolution not by natural selection, but evolution by design. In order to contain these raliihpstones, we've cteaerd a single channel that resembles the digestive tract, that will help flow these bacteria and alter their function along the way. We then started growing these channels on the huamn body, varying material properties according to the derseid functionality. Where we wanted more photosynthesis, we would design more transparent channels. This wearable digestive system, when it's stretched end to end, spans 60 meetrs. This is half the length of a football field, and 10 times as long as our small intestines. And here it is for the first time unveiled at TED — our first photosynthetic wearable, liquid channels glowing with life inside a wbreaale clothing.
Open Cloze
The setting for our next exploration using the same ______ principles was the solar system. We looked for the ___________ of creating life-sustaining clothing for interplanetary voyages. To do that, we needed to contain bacteria and be able to _______ their flow. So like the periodic table, we came up with our own table of the elements: new _________ that were computationally _____, additively manufactured and biologically augmented. I like to think of _________ biology as liquid alchemy, only instead of transmuting precious metals, you're synthesizing new biological functionality inside very small channels. It's called microfluidics. We 3D-printed our own ________ in order to control the flow of these liquid bacterial cultures. In our first piece of clothing, we combined two microorganisms. The first is cyanobacteria. It lives in our ______ and in freshwater _____. And the second, E. coli, the bacterium that inhabits the human gut. One converts light into _____, the other ________ that sugar and produces biofuels useful for the built environment. Now, these two microorganisms never interact in nature. In fact, they never met each other. They've been here, engineered for the first time, to have a ____________ inside a piece of ________. Think of it as evolution not by natural selection, but evolution by design. In order to contain these _____________, we've _______ a single channel that resembles the digestive tract, that will help flow these bacteria and alter their function along the way. We then started growing these channels on the _____ body, varying material properties according to the _______ functionality. Where we wanted more photosynthesis, we would design more transparent channels. This wearable digestive system, when it's stretched end to end, spans 60 ______. This is half the length of a football field, and 10 times as long as our small intestines. And here it is for the first time unveiled at TED — our first photosynthetic wearable, liquid channels glowing with life inside a ________ clothing.
Solution
- channels
- relationships
- meters
- oceans
- desired
- wearable
- human
- relationship
- possibility
- lifeforms
- synthetic
- design
- ponds
- created
- sugar
- control
- clothing
- grown
- consumes
Original Text
The setting for our next exploration using the same design principles was the solar system. We looked for the possibility of creating life-sustaining clothing for interplanetary voyages. To do that, we needed to contain bacteria and be able to control their flow. So like the periodic table, we came up with our own table of the elements: new lifeforms that were computationally grown, additively manufactured and biologically augmented. I like to think of synthetic biology as liquid alchemy, only instead of transmuting precious metals, you're synthesizing new biological functionality inside very small channels. It's called microfluidics. We 3D-printed our own channels in order to control the flow of these liquid bacterial cultures. In our first piece of clothing, we combined two microorganisms. The first is cyanobacteria. It lives in our oceans and in freshwater ponds. And the second, E. coli, the bacterium that inhabits the human gut. One converts light into sugar, the other consumes that sugar and produces biofuels useful for the built environment. Now, these two microorganisms never interact in nature. In fact, they never met each other. They've been here, engineered for the first time, to have a relationship inside a piece of clothing. Think of it as evolution not by natural selection, but evolution by design. In order to contain these relationships, we've created a single channel that resembles the digestive tract, that will help flow these bacteria and alter their function along the way. We then started growing these channels on the human body, varying material properties according to the desired functionality. Where we wanted more photosynthesis, we would design more transparent channels. This wearable digestive system, when it's stretched end to end, spans 60 meters. This is half the length of a football field, and 10 times as long as our small intestines. And here it is for the first time unveiled at TED — our first photosynthetic wearable, liquid channels glowing with life inside a wearable clothing.
Frequently Occurring Word Combinations
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collocation |
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biological functionality |
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genetically engineered |
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varying material |
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fruit tree |
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generate structures |
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material properties |
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Important Words
- additively
- alchemy
- alter
- augmented
- bacteria
- bacterial
- bacterium
- biofuels
- biological
- biologically
- biology
- body
- built
- called
- channel
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- clothing
- coli
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- computationally
- consumes
- control
- converts
- created
- creating
- cultures
- cyanobacteria
- design
- desired
- digestive
- engineered
- environment
- evolution
- exploration
- fact
- field
- flow
- football
- freshwater
- function
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- glowing
- growing
- grown
- gut
- human
- inhabits
- interact
- interplanetary
- intestines
- length
- life
- lifeforms
- light
- liquid
- lives
- long
- looked
- manufactured
- material
- met
- metals
- meters
- microfluidics
- microorganisms
- natural
- nature
- needed
- oceans
- order
- periodic
- photosynthesis
- photosynthetic
- piece
- ponds
- possibility
- precious
- principles
- produces
- properties
- relationship
- relationships
- resembles
- selection
- setting
- single
- small
- solar
- spans
- started
- stretched
- sugar
- synthesizing
- synthetic
- system
- table
- ted
- time
- times
- tract
- transmuting
- transparent
- unveiled
- varying
- voyages
- wanted
- wearable