【079】Meet the microscopic life in your home -- and on your face

Speaker： Anne Madden

Key words：生活 微生物 发现

Abstract：我们的脸颊，手指和皮肤上生活着数以万计的微生物，微生物学家Anne Madden告诉我们除了消灭他们，我们可以研究利用这些微生物，让他们成为新技术新药物的来源。

Behold the microscopic jungle in and around you: tiny organisms living on your cheeks, under your sofa and in the soil in your backyard. We have an adversarial relationship with these microbes -- we sanitize, exterminate and disinfect them -- but according to microbiologist Anne Madden, they're sources of new technologies and medicines waiting to be discovered. These microscopic alchemists aren't gross, Madden says -- they're the future. @TED

Content：

Fact: when you are touching your skin, you are actually touching 100 billion bacterial cells that live on our skin.

Our relationship with microbes:

• it used to be adversarial relationship, we sanitize, exterminate and disinfect them
• they're sources of new technologies and medicines waiting to be discovered and can provide microbial solutions to human problems.

Study:

Anne and her team found over 600 species of bugs that live in USA homes, everything from spiders and cockroaches to tiny mites that cling to feathers, over 100,000 species of bacteria and fungi that live in our dust bunnies, thousands more that live on our clothes or in our showers.

Microbial solution examples:

One: beer maker

Here's an example. We started with a pest, a wasp that lives on many of our homes. Inside that wasp, we plucked out a little-known microorganism species with a unique ability: it could make beer. This is a trait that only a few species on this planet have. In fact, all commercially produced beer you've ever had likely came from one of only three microorganism species. Yet our species, it could make a beer that tasted like honey, and it could also make a delightfully tart beer. In fact, this microorganism species that lives in the belly of a wasp, it could make a valuable sour beer better than any other species on this planet. There are now four species that produce commercial beer. Where you used to see a pest, now think of tasting your future favorite beer.

Two: novel antibiotics maker

As a second example, I worked with researchers to dig in the dirt in people's backyards. There, we uncovered a microorganism that could make novel antibiotics, antibiotics that can kill the world's worst superbugs. This was an awesome thing to find, but here's the secret: for the last 60 years, most of the antibiotics on the market have come from similar soil bacteria. Every day, you and I and everyone in this room and on this planet, are saved by similar soil bacteria that produce most of our antibiotics. Where you used to see dirt, now think of medication.

Three: PTSD maker

Perhaps my favorite example comes from colleagues who are studying a pond scum microorganism, which is tragically named after the cow dung it was first found in. It's pretty unremarkable and would be unworthy of discussion, except that the researchers found that if you feed it to mice, it vaccinates against PTSD. It vaccinates against fear. Where you used to see pond scum, now think of hope.

Conclusion: These tiny organisms live around us are the the future sources of new technologies and medicines

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Comment：

算是从生活发观察发现的一个实例，人类一直都在向大自然的发明创造学习。

Link：TED

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