WEBVTT

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I collaborate with bacteria.

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And I'm about to show you

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some stop-motion footage that I made recently

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where you'll see bacteria accumulating minerals

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from their environment

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over the period of an hour.

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So what you're seeing here

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is the bacteria metabolizing,

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and as they do so

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they create an electrical charge.

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And this attracts metals

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from their local environment.

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And these metals accumulate as minerals

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on the surface of the bacteria.

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One of the most pervasive problems

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in the world today for people

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is inadequate access

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to clean drinking water.

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And the desalination process

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is one where we take out salts.

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We can use it for drinking and agriculture.

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Removing the salts from water --

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particularly seawater --

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through reverse osmosis

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is a critical technique

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for countries who do not have access to clean drinking water

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around the globe.

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So seawater reverse osmosis

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is a membrane-filtration technology.

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We take the water from the sea

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and we apply pressure.

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And this pressure forces the seawater

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through a membrane.

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This takes energy,

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producing clean water.

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But we're also left with a concentrated salt solution, or brine.

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But the process is very expensive

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and it's cost-prohibitive for many countries around the globe.

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And also, the brine that's produced

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is oftentimes just pumped back out into the sea.

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And this is detrimental to the local ecology

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of the sea area that it's pumped back out into.

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So I work in Singapore at the moment,

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and this is a place that's really a leading place

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for desalination technology.

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And Singapore proposes by 2060

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to produce [900] million liters per day

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of desalinated water.

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But this will produce an equally massive amount

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of desalination brine.

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And this is where my collaboration with bacteria comes into play.

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So what we're doing at the moment

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is we're accumulating metals

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like calcium, potassium and magnesium

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from out of desalination brine.

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And this, in terms of magnesium

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and the amount of water that I just mentioned,

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equates to a $4.5 billion

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mining industry for Singapore --

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a place that doesn't have any natural resources.

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So I'd like you to image a mining industry

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in a way that one hasn't existed before;

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imagine a mining industry

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that doesn't mean defiling the Earth;

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imagine bacteria helping us do this

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by accumulating and precipitating

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and sedimenting minerals

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out of desalination brine.

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And what you can see here

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is the beginning of an industry in a test tube,

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a mining industry that is in harmony with nature.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)