But I want to tell it to you the way it really happened --

我今天要告訴各位一項新的發現，

not the way I present it in a scientific meeting,

我要以事件發生的原貌呈現給各位，

or the way you'd read it in a scientific paper.

我不想讓你們有參與科學會議報告、

It's a story about beyond biomimetics,

或是閱讀科學期刊的感覺。

to something I'm calling biomutualism.

這件事超越了生物模仿學，

I define that as an association between biology and another discipline,

我把它叫做「互惠生物學」。

where each discipline reciprocally advances the other,

我把這個學科定義為生物學與其他學科間的互動，

but where the collective discoveries that emerge are beyond any single field.

每一個學科都會互相受惠於其他學科，

Now, in terms of biomimetics,

但是集眾學科之力，其成果將超越單一學科領域。

as human technologies take on more of the characteristics of nature,

以生物模仿學來說，

nature becomes a much more useful teacher.

由於人類科技從自然界學習到許多東西，

Engineering can be inspired by biology

大自然就成了一個全能的老師。

by using its principles and analogies when they're advantageous,

工程學則受生物學之啟發，

but then integrating that with the best human engineering,

在運用生物學的原理和功能後獲益良多。

ultimately to make something actually better than nature.

將二者相結合之後，

Now, being a biologist, I was very curious about this.

最終我們將能發展出超越大自然的科技。

These are gecko toes.

身為一個生物學家，我對這個很好奇，

And we wondered how they use these bizarre toes

這些是壁虎的腳趾，

to climb up a wall so quickly.

我們很好奇為什麼他們能用這麼神奇的腳趾

We discovered it. And what we found was

在牆上迅速地爬行。

that they have leaf-like structures on their toes,

我們發現，

with millions of tiny hairs that look like a rug,

他們的腳趾有像樹葉一樣的結構，

and each of those hairs has the worst case of split-ends possible:

上面長滿了數以百萬計的細微毛髮，就像毛毯一樣。

about 100 to 1000 split ends that are nano-size.

這些細微的毛髮末端嚴重地分叉，

And the individual has 2 billion of these nano-size split ends.

每一個末端都有一百到一千個奈米級的分叉。

They don't stick by Velcro or suction or glue.

一隻壁虎身上大約有二億個這種奈米級的分叉。

They actually stick by intermolecular forces alone,

他們不是靠魔鬼氈、吸力或是黏膠去吸附在牆上，

van der Waals forces.

而是利用分子間的作用力來吸附，

And I'm really pleased to report to you today

又稱范氏引力。

that the first synthetic self-cleaning, dry adhesive has been made.

我很高興告訴各位，

From the simplest version in nature, one branch,

世界上第一個人工合成、完全不沾黏的乾性黏著劑已經誕生了。

my engineering collaborator, Ron Fearing, at Berkeley,

從自然界的壁虎身上，

had made the first synthetic version.

和我一起共同研究的工程學家Ron Fearing，

And so has my other incredible collaborator,

在柏克萊製作了第一個人工合成的仿壁虎黏著劑。

Mark Cutkosky, at Stanford --

還有另一個與我一起研究的科學家

he made much larger hairs than the gecko,

Mark Cutkosky，

but used the same general principles.

在史丹福製作了比壁虎大上許多的毛髮，

And here is its first test.

但也運用相同的原理。

(Laughter)

這是他們的第一次測試。

That's Kellar Autumn, my former Ph.D. student,

(笑聲)

professor now at Lewis and Clark,

那是Kellar Autumn，之前是我的博士班學生，

literally giving his first-born child up for this test.

目前在路易斯暨克拉克大學擔任教授，

(Laughter)

他把他的老大拿來測試。

More recently, this happened.

(笑聲)

Man: This the first time someone has actually climbed with it.

最近，還有這件事。

Narrator: Lynn Verinsky, a professional climber,

男人：這是第一次有人用這種東西進行攀爬。

who appeared to be brimming with confidence.

旁白：Lynn Verinsky是個職業攀爬者，

Lynn Verinsky: Honestly, it's going to be perfectly safe. It will be perfectly safe.

看起來充滿自信。

Man: How do you know?

Lynn Verinsky: 老實說，這很安全，絕對沒問題。

Lynn Verinsky: Because of liability insurance. (Laughter)

男人：你怎麼知道？

Narrator: With a mattress below and attached to a safety rope,

Lynn Verinsky: 因為我有買保險。

Lynn began her 60-foot ascent.

旁白：下面有安全墊，再綁上安全索，

Lynn made it to the top in a perfect pairing

Lynn開始往上爬，她要爬60呎。

of Hollywood and science.

Lynn爬上終點，

Man: So you're the first human being to officially emulate a gecko.

就像好萊塢與科學的完美結合。

Lynn Verinsky: Ha! Wow. And what a privilege that has been.

男人：你是第一個真正模仿壁虎的人。

Robert Full: That's what she did on rough surfaces.

Lynn Verinsky: 哈！哇！那真是榮幸！

But she actually used these on smooth surfaces --

Robert Full: 她爬的是粗糙的表面，

two of them -- to climb up, and pull herself up.

但是她也曾利用這個爬上平滑的表面，

And you can try this in the lobby,

分成二個動作，先吸附住，再把自己拉上去。

and look at the gecko-inspired material.

你們可以在外面的大廳試試這個東西，

Now the problem with the robots doing this

看看壁虎啟發我們做出了什麼東西。

is that they can't get unstuck,

現在的問題是，我們在機器人身上裝設了這種材料，

with the material.

但機器人的手一旦吸附住表面，

This is the gecko's solution. They actually peel their toes away

就拿不下來了。

from the surface, at high rates,

這是壁虎的作法，他們會把自己的腳趾從表面上「剝」下來，

as they run up the wall.

用很快的速度，

Well I'm really excited today to show you

好讓他們爬上牆壁。

the newest version of a robot, Stickybot,

我很高興可以向你們展示

using a new hierarchical dry adhesive.

最新版本的機器人，

Here is the actual robot.

我們將新開發出來的乾式黏著劑運用在這上面。

And here is what it does.

這就是機器人，

And if you look,

它可以做到這樣，

you can see that it uses

如果你仔細看，

the toe peeling,

你會發現

just like the gecko does.

它也把腳趾從表面上「剝」下來，

If we can show some of the video, you can see it climbing up the wall.

就像壁虎一樣。

(Applause)

如果我們可以把影片再放長一點，你就會看到它爬到牆壁上了。

There it is.

(掌聲)

And now it can go on other surfaces because of the new adhesive

你看，

that the Stanford group was able to do

因為有這種新的黏著劑，所以它可以爬上其他表面，

in designing this incredible robot.

這是史丹福團隊設計的

(Applause)

了不起的機器人。

Oh. One thing I want to point out is, look at Stickybot.

(掌聲)

You see something on it. It's not just to look like a gecko.

噢，我想要講一件事，看看那個機器人，

It has a tail. And just when you think you've figured out nature,

你會看到有一個東西在上面，它不只是看起來像一隻壁虎而已，

this kind of thing happens.

它還有尾巴。你以為你夠瞭解大自然了，

The engineers told us, for the climbing robots,

但其實不是。

that, if they don't have a tail,

工程師告訴我們，

they fall off the wall.

如果不幫這隻會爬的機器人裝上尾巴，

So what they did was they asked us

它就會從牆上掉下來。

an important question.

所以他們提出了一個

They said, "Well, it kind of looks like a tail."

重要的問題，

Even though we put a passive bar there.

他們說：「嗯，這看起來像條尾巴。」

"Do animals use their tails when they climb up walls?"

即使我們只是裝飾性地裝了一條沒有作用的尾巴在那裡。

What they were doing was returning the favor,

「動物在爬牆的時候會用到尾巴嗎？」

by giving us a hypothesis to test,

他們這麼做反而是幫了我們一個忙，

in biology, that we wouldn't have thought of.

讓我們就這個假設進行測試，

So of course, in reality, we were then panicked,

因為我們這些生物學家壓根也沒想到這件事。

being the biologists, and we should know this already.

這當然讓我們覺得很緊張，

We said, "Well, what do tails do?"

因為身為生物學家的我們，早就應該知道這件事才對。

Well we know that tails store fat, for example.

於是我們想：「嗯，尾巴有什麼用途？」

We know that you can grab onto things with them.

我們知道尾巴儲存脂肪，

And perhaps it is most well known

或是可以用尾巴勾住某個東西讓自己不要掉下去，

that they provide static balance.

或是如同大家都知道的，

(Laughter)

尾巴是用來保持平衡的。

It can also act as a counterbalance.

(笑聲)

So watch this kangaroo.

尾巴可以用來保持平衡，

See that tail? That's incredible!

讓我們看看這隻袋鼠，

Marc Raibert built a Uniroo hopping robot.

看到它的尾巴了嗎？真的很不可思議！

And it was unstable without its tail.

Marc Raibert仿袋鼠做了一個跳動機器人，

Now mostly tails limit maneuverability,

如果沒有裝上尾巴，就不能保持穩定。

like this human inside this dinosaur suit.

大部分的尾巴都會妨礙行動，

(Laughter)

就像這個穿上恐龍裝的人一樣。

My colleagues actually went on to test this limitation,

(笑聲)

by increasing the moment of inertia of a student, so they had a tail,

我的同事還針對這一點進行了測試，

and running them through and obstacle course,

測試延長慣性作用的時間，所以他們讓一個學生裝上象徵性的尾巴，

and found a decrement in performance,

然後在一群障礙物裡跑，

like you'd predict.

發現速度都降低了。

(Laughter)

就跟大家想得一樣。

But of course, this is a passive tail.

(笑聲)

And you can also have active tails.

但是，這是個沒有作用的尾巴，

And when I went back to research this, I realized

你也可以換上有功能的尾巴。

that one of the great TED moments in the past,

當我回去研究這個問題的時候，

from Nathan,

我發現以前Nathan曾發表一個

we've talked about an active tail.

TED演說，

Video: Myhrvold thinks tail-cracking dinosaurs

就談到了具有功能的尾巴。

were interested in love, not war.

影片：Myhrvold認為揮動尾巴的恐龍，

Robert Full: He talked about the tail being a whip for communication.

其實是要追求異性，而不是要打架。

It can also be used in defense.

Robert Full: 他認為像鞭子一樣揮動的尾巴，其實是在傳遞訊息，

Pretty powerful.

也可以用來防衛，

So we then went back and looked at the animal.

很有力的工具。

And we ran it up a surface.

所以我們再回來看看壁虎，

But this time what we did is we put a slippery patch

我們把它趕上一堵牆壁，

that you see in yellow there.

但我們在牆上補了一塊

And watch on the right what the animal is doing with its tail

黃色的光滑板子，

when it slips. This is slowed down 10 times.

然後注意看右邊，看看壁虎在快要滑下來的時候，

So here is normal speed.

它的尾巴會發生什麼作用。我們把影片速度放慢十倍，

And watch it now slip,

這是正常速度，

and see what it does with its tail.

現在它要滑下來了，

It has an active tail that functions as a fifth leg,

看它的尾巴在做什麼。

and it contributes to stability.

它的尾巴發揮了第五隻腳的作用，

If you make it slip a huge amount, this is what we discovered.

讓它可以保持平衡。

This is incredible.

如果你把光滑的區域再放大多一點，就會看到這種情形，

The engineers had a really good idea.

真的很不可思議！

And then of course we wondered,

這些工程師的想法真的很棒！

okay, they have an active tail, but let's picture them.

我們當然會想，

They're climbing up a wall, or a tree.

好，他們的尾巴有作用，那麼再想想看，

And they get to the top and let's say there's some leaves there.

如果他們爬上一堵牆，或一棵樹，

And what would happen if they climbed on the underside of that leaf,

然後爬到頂端有樹葉的部分，

and there was some wind, or we shook it?

如果他們爬到樹葉背面的時候，

And we did that experiment, that you see here.

剛好有風吹過來，或者我們搖晃那個樹幹，結果會怎樣？

(Applause)

所以我們做了那個實驗，你看看。

And this is what we discovered.

(掌聲)

Now that's real time. You can't see anything.

這是我們拍攝的影片，

But there it is slowed down.

用正常速度播放，你什麼都看不到，

What we discovered was the world's fastest air-righting response.

所以放慢速度。

For those of you who remember your physics, that's a zero-angular-momentum

我們看到世界上最快的空中翻轉，

righting response. But it's like a cat.

你們如果還記得一點物理常識的話，這就是角動量為零的反應。

You know, cats falling. Cats do this. They twist their bodies.

但它的動作看起來像貓，

But geckos do it better.

就像貓掉下來的反應，貓也會這樣，他們會旋轉自己的身體。

And they do it with their tail.

但是壁虎做得更好，

So they do it with this active tail as they swing around.

因為他們會運用自己的尾巴。

And then they always land in the sort of superman skydiving posture.

當他們在旋轉的時候，有用到尾巴的力量，

Okay, now we wondered, if we were right,

所以降落的時候就像超人在空中下降的姿勢一樣。

we should be able to test this in a physical model, in a robot.

接下來我們想，如果我們想得沒錯，

So for TED we actually built a robot,

我們應該在實體模型上測試一下，就是在機器人上測試。

over there, a prototype, with the tail.

為了TED，我們真的打造了一個機器人，

And we're going to attempt the first air-righting response

是原型機器人，有尾巴的哦。

in a tail, with a robot.

所以我們打算在這個有尾巴的機器人身上，

If we could have the lights on it.

測試第一次的空中翻轉。

Okay, there it goes.

請打開燈光，

And show the video.

好，可以開始了。

There it is.

請看影片，

And it works just like it does in the animal.

就是這樣，

So all you need is a swing of the tail to right yourself.

就像是動物的動作一樣。

(Applause)

所以你只需要一條尾巴來幫助你旋轉。

Now, of course, we were normally frightened

(掌聲)

because the animal has no gliding adaptations,

我們會覺得驚訝，

so we thought, "Oh that's okay. We'll put it in a vertical wind tunnel.

是因為壁虎並沒有滑翔的本領，

We'll blow the air up, we'll give it a landing target, a tree trunk,

所以我們想：「好吧，我們把壁虎放進一個垂直的風管，

just outside the plexi-glass enclosure, and see what it does.

吹氣上來，然後設定一個降落點，就設定一個樹幹吧...

(Laughter)

放在塑膠玻璃圍籬的外面，看看它的反應如何。」

So we did. And here is what it does.

(笑聲)

So the wind is coming from the bottom. This is slowed down 10 times.

我們真的做了，請看影片。

It does an equilibrium glide. Highly controlled.

風會從底下吹上來，這是速度放慢十倍的影片，

This is sort of incredible. But actually it's quite beautiful,

它滑翔得非常平穩，控制得非常好，

when you take a picture of it.

真是令人不敢相信！你如果替它照張相，

And it's better than that, it -- just in the slide -- maneuvers in mid-air.

其實還挺美的呢！

And the way it does it, is it takes its tail

還不只這樣，在它滑動的時候，它還可以在空中轉向，

and it swings it one way to yaw left, and it swings its other way to yaw right.

它將尾巴擺動向一邊

So we can maneuver this way.

好向左偏轉，然後再擺動向另一邊再向右偏轉，

And then -- we had to film this several times to believe this --

就是靠這個動作來轉向的。

it also does this. Watch this.

還有，我們看了好幾次影片才相信它會做這個動作，

It oscillates its tail up and down like a dolphin.

看，它還會做這個動作，

It can actually swim through the air.

它會像海豚一樣上下擺動尾巴，

But watch its front legs. Can you see what they are doing?

就像在空中游泳一樣。

What does that mean for the origin of flapping flight?

再看看它的前腳，看到它在做什麼嗎？

Maybe it's evolved from coming down from trees,

像不像在振翅飛翔？

and trying to control a glide.

或許這是由樹上下來的動作演化而來，

Stay tuned for that.

然後它試著做得像滑翔一樣。

(Laughter)

別轉台哦！

So then we wondered, "Can they actually maneuver with this?"

(笑聲)

So there is the landing target. Could they steer towards it

然後我們又想：「他們真的能夠控制方向嗎？」

with these capabilities? Here it is in the wind tunnel.

所以我們設了一個降落點，看他們能不能降落在那裡？

And it certainly looks like it.

現在它在風管裡，

You can see it even better from down on top.

它好像很享受的樣子，

Watch the animal.

你看到它上升的時候做得更好，

Definitely moving towards the landing target.

看看這隻壁虎，

Watch the whip of its tail as it does it. Look at that.

完全朝降落點前進。

It's unbelievable.

看看它尾巴的擺動，你看看，

So now we were really confused,

真是令人不敢相信！

because there are no reports of it gliding.

我們有點搞不清楚了，

So we went, "Oh my god, we have to go to the field,

因為以前從來沒有人說過壁虎會滑翔。

and see if it actually does this."

所以我們想：「天啊！我們得到野外去，

Completely opposite of the way you'd see it on a nature film, of course.

看看野外的壁虎是不是真的會滑翔。」

We wondered, "Do they actually glide in nature?"

這完全和你看的野生動物影片製作的觀點相反，

Well we went to the forests of Singapore and Southeast Asia.

我們想：「他們真的會在野外滑翔嗎？」

And the next video you see is the first time we've showed this.

我們跑到新加坡和東南亞的森林裡去，

This is the actual video -- not staged, a real research video --

等會兒你們將會看到首次公開播映的影片。

of animal gliding down. There is a red trajectory line.

這是真實的野外影片，不是設計過的，

Look at the end to see the animal.

是真的研究壁虎滑翔下來的影片--那兒有一條紅色的滑翔線，

But then as it gets closer to the tree,

在末端可以看到壁虎，

look at the close-up. And see if you can see it land.

當它靠近樹的時候，

So there it comes down. There is a gecko at the end of that trajectory line.

要注意看特寫鏡頭，看看你是否能看到它降落的畫面。

You see it there? There? Watch it come down.

它下來了，有一隻壁虎在滑翔線的末端，

Now watch up there and you can see the landing. Did you see it hit?

看到了嗎？在那裡，它下來了，

It actually uses its tail too,

你看上面的特寫鏡頭就會看到它降落的畫面，看到了嗎？

just like we saw in the lab.

它真的有用它的尾巴幫忙，

So now we can continue this mutualism

就像我們在實驗室裡看到的一樣。

by suggesting that they can make an active tail.