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

  1. channels
  2. relationships
  3. meters
  4. oceans
  5. desired
  6. wearable
  7. human
  8. relationship
  9. possibility
  10. lifeforms
  11. synthetic
  12. design
  13. ponds
  14. created
  15. sugar
  16. control
  17. clothing
  18. grown
  19. 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

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
biological functionality 2
genetically engineered 2
varying material 2
fruit tree 2
generate structures 2
material properties 2

Important Words

  1. additively
  2. alchemy
  3. alter
  4. augmented
  5. bacteria
  6. bacterial
  7. bacterium
  8. biofuels
  9. biological
  10. biologically
  11. biology
  12. body
  13. built
  14. called
  15. channel
  16. channels
  17. clothing
  18. coli
  19. combined
  20. computationally
  21. consumes
  22. control
  23. converts
  24. created
  25. creating
  26. cultures
  27. cyanobacteria
  28. design
  29. desired
  30. digestive
  31. engineered
  32. environment
  33. evolution
  34. exploration
  35. fact
  36. field
  37. flow
  38. football
  39. freshwater
  40. function
  41. functionality
  42. glowing
  43. growing
  44. grown
  45. gut
  46. human
  47. inhabits
  48. interact
  49. interplanetary
  50. intestines
  51. length
  52. life
  53. lifeforms
  54. light
  55. liquid
  56. lives
  57. long
  58. looked
  59. manufactured
  60. material
  61. met
  62. metals
  63. meters
  64. microfluidics
  65. microorganisms
  66. natural
  67. nature
  68. needed
  69. oceans
  70. order
  71. periodic
  72. photosynthesis
  73. photosynthetic
  74. piece
  75. ponds
  76. possibility
  77. precious
  78. principles
  79. produces
  80. properties
  81. relationship
  82. relationships
  83. resembles
  84. selection
  85. setting
  86. single
  87. small
  88. solar
  89. spans
  90. started
  91. stretched
  92. sugar
  93. synthesizing
  94. synthetic
  95. system
  96. table
  97. ted
  98. time
  99. times
  100. tract
  101. transmuting
  102. transparent
  103. unveiled
  104. varying
  105. voyages
  106. wanted
  107. wearable