0:00:00.141,0:00:02.195
And today I'm going to tell you about

0:00:02.195,0:00:05.999
a very exotic creature out there[br]in my collection.

0:00:05.999,0:00:08.193
It's a commom house fly.

0:00:08.193,0:00:12.381
So, everybody's seen[br]a common house fly?

0:00:12.821,0:00:15.926
Yeah? You guys have[br]a fair share of bugs here, so...

0:00:15.926,0:00:18.561
(Laughter)

0:00:18.561,0:00:21.758
Before I start, you're going to get[br]very up close to these things.

0:00:21.758,0:00:25.447
You've never probably been[br]so close to these creatures.

0:00:25.447,0:00:26.715
So, I just want to know,

0:00:26.715,0:00:29.903
who really is freaked out with insects?[br]Please be very honest.

0:00:29.903,0:00:31.389
I'm not going to get offended.

0:00:31.389,0:00:33.230
Who really gets freaked out

0:00:33.230,0:00:35.891
or thinks they're weird and[br]would much rather squat them?

0:00:35.919,0:00:37.711
Which is perfectly honest.

0:00:38.081,0:00:40.226
Most commonly,[br]that's the behavior we see.

0:00:40.226,0:00:42.371
Ok, so we have a few people[br]but you guys are more brave.

0:00:42.371,0:00:44.518
So that's a good start.

0:00:44.671,0:00:47.387
Ok. So, once there was a party.

0:00:47.387,0:00:49.749
There is a party on this planet going on.

0:00:50.949,0:00:53.441
I got an invitation to this party

0:00:53.441,0:00:56.234
a hundred and fifty million years late.

0:00:56.672,0:01:00.888
As humans.[br]What party am I talking about?

0:01:00.888,0:01:05.646
Is this a Halloween party? There are[br]all these bugs with different costumes...

0:01:05.646,0:01:10.110
These are pictures from the marine census[br]that just came out of new species

0:01:10.170,0:01:12.977
that were found very recently[br]in the ocean.

0:01:13.013,0:01:14.966
I can keep going

0:01:14.966,0:01:17.774
and it'll take me hours and hours

0:01:17.774,0:01:21.170
to just show you just stuff[br]that we discovered last year.

0:01:21.276,0:01:25.369
The party I'm talking about[br]is the party of biodiversity.

0:01:25.899,0:01:28.455
There is all this stuff out there,

0:01:28.615,0:01:33.940
not just us, and we are only[br]a part of this party.

0:01:37.505,0:01:39.316
I was told to bring a prop.

0:01:39.316,0:01:44.565
And my most favorite prop, believe me,[br]is pond scum.

0:01:44.565,0:01:46.519
So, I was going to bring[br]a bucket of pond scum

0:01:46.519,0:01:48.363
and ask you guys a very simple thing:

0:01:48.743,0:01:52.327
how many creatures, do you guys think,[br]are out there,

0:01:52.327,0:01:55.319
if you go out to a lake,[br]fetch a bucket of water,

0:01:55.319,0:01:58.186
how many have you caught?[br]Anybody has a guess?

0:01:58.186,0:02:01.016
(Audience) 300? 5 million?

0:02:01.016,0:02:03.433
Millions of thousands and...

0:02:03.494,0:02:05.564
The answer is, we don't know!

0:02:05.644,0:02:08.398
You could go out there[br]and find something

0:02:08.398,0:02:11.402
that nobody on this entire planet[br]has seen before.

0:02:11.402,0:02:16.096
And this doesn't mean you have to go[br]to Antarctica or these exotic places,

0:02:16.096,0:02:19.448
you can go in your own backyard.[br]In a drop of water.

0:02:19.448,0:02:22.879
This is a beautiful book that talks about[br]all these tiny little things...

0:02:22.879,0:02:25.733
These are single cell plants.[br]These are diatoms.

0:02:25.748,0:02:28.923
They are all very different[br]and do amazing things

0:02:28.923,0:02:33.652
that no scientist or any engineer[br]could ever actually achieve as yet.

0:02:35.762,0:02:39.437
Now is the bad part.[br]I prepped you up.

0:02:39.437,0:02:42.311
I have a feeling that there is[br]something bad coming.

0:02:42.311,0:02:45.185
The party is going to be over very soon.

0:02:45.185,0:02:48.061
And this is why the party[br]is going to be over very soon.

0:02:48.061,0:02:51.431
I'm not going to harp on this[br]of the bad things we're doing,

0:02:51.431,0:02:55.890
but, just believe me -- or most of you[br]that have already read --

0:02:55.890,0:02:58.427
that things are looking really,[br]really bad.

0:02:58.443,0:03:02.336
We're losing things faster than[br]we can actually discover them.

0:03:02.336,0:03:05.959
So you might ask,[br]what's the big deal?

0:03:08.581,0:03:12.347
The point is, to be able[br]to connect to these things,

0:03:12.347,0:03:16.383
to things that you're actually losing,[br]I think the big connection is knowledge.

0:03:16.383,0:03:19.397
Just knowing something is out there[br]is not good enough.

0:03:19.397,0:03:21.957
It's just another name in another phylum,

0:03:21.957,0:03:24.717
in another class, another species.[br]Who cares?

0:03:24.997,0:03:27.659
The point is, once you have knowledge,

0:03:27.659,0:03:30.981
once you actually understand[br]how this life works

0:03:30.981,0:03:34.433
you get to connect to it and[br]appreciate it in a completly different way.

0:03:34.603,0:03:37.462
This is what we are lacking[br]in the debate of biodiversity.

0:03:37.785,0:03:42.435
So, the question today was,[br]as the parties collaborate, what can you do?

0:03:42.435,0:03:45.323
And I'm going to argue, you can[br]go out there and discover stuff.

0:03:45.323,0:03:49.991
Discover facts, discover things[br]that no other mankind knows.

0:03:52.131,0:03:54.334
So, there are people in the past

0:03:54.334,0:03:57.437
-- and a lot of famous business leaders[br]have done this before --

0:03:57.437,0:03:58.863
they discovered coffee.

0:03:58.863,0:04:01.969
This is a legal drug --[br]talking about drugs on the stage --

0:04:01.969,0:04:04.615
that all of us actually drink everyday.

0:04:05.375,0:04:08.429
But it was just found as[br]a random plant in the rainforest

0:04:09.769,0:04:11.993
and the market grew from there on.

0:04:12.425,0:04:16.101
A lot of people talk about that[br]to have a sustainable biodiversity,

0:04:16.101,0:04:20.288
we're going to find all the solutions[br]to human problems in many of these things.

0:04:20.288,0:04:24.716
There are beetles out there that[br]at this very moment are chewing up

0:04:24.716,0:04:27.636
antivirals that we have no idea about.

0:04:27.636,0:04:32.191
There is a glue that a mussel makes[br]that you can actually use under water.

0:04:32.191,0:04:35.920
Rather than stitching your own stitches[br]when you get hurt, you put the glue on,

0:04:35.920,0:04:38.708
and your body's tissue[br]actually merges together.

0:04:38.708,0:04:41.729
So there are these fascinating things[br]that we, as humans,

0:04:41.729,0:04:44.073
have no idea to imagine right now.

0:04:44.073,0:04:47.771
So, it's not about applying,[br]going from a problem to a solution.

0:04:47.771,0:04:51.058
It's going and finding out[br]what's happening out there.

0:04:51.489,0:04:54.243
So, rather than the role[br]of business leaders,

0:04:54.243,0:04:56.997
I want you to be citizen scientists,

0:04:56.997,0:04:59.752
take out your little lense[br]and go figure stuff out.

0:04:59.752,0:05:01.601
And I'm going to tell you[br]only one story

0:05:01.601,0:05:05.494
of all kind of things that we have found[br]completely at random.

0:05:05.494,0:05:07.018
We had no plans.

0:05:08.664,0:05:12.921
Ok. So, there is science in the middle.

0:05:13.044,0:05:17.068
So, why insects?[br]I'm fascinated by them.

0:05:17.068,0:05:20.702
They are kind of weird.[br]They do very bizarre things.

0:05:20.702,0:05:24.655
This is a water strider we discovered[br]that actually walks on water.

0:05:24.655,0:05:27.414
When you poke at it, it has[br]a capability to gallop,

0:05:27.476,0:05:29.681
just like the gallop of a horse

0:05:29.681,0:05:32.518
but completely on a water surface.

0:05:32.949,0:05:34.882
They are beautiful too.

0:05:34.882,0:05:38.001
Not only from the outside,[br]the parts that you see.

0:05:38.001,0:05:41.889
But as an engineer,[br]they are beautiful from the inside.

0:05:41.889,0:05:43.450
The way they actually work,

0:05:43.465,0:05:46.204
the way they perform the things[br]that they actually perform.

0:05:46.204,0:05:50.837
And, in my opinion,[br]the coolest reason to study insects:

0:05:50.837,0:05:53.254
they are the aliens of this planet.

0:05:53.254,0:05:57.025
There is a beautiful documentary[br]that came out on "Aliens of the Amazon".

0:05:57.025,0:05:59.476
The bizarre ideas that they have

0:05:59.476,0:06:03.382
are really outstanding,[br]and I think it would be a shame

0:06:03.382,0:06:07.521
if we really actually didn't look at them[br]very closely and try to figure out

0:06:07.521,0:06:09.265
what is going on?

0:06:09.265,0:06:12.075
Where are we missing[br]all these ideas?

0:06:15.477,0:06:19.455
Ok. So, here is a confession:[br]they also do bad things.

0:06:19.471,0:06:21.919
So, a common example are

0:06:21.919,0:06:24.367
all these diseases that flies[br]actually spread,

0:06:24.367,0:06:26.815
and a very common one is[br]the African sleeping sickness.

0:06:26.815,0:06:29.990
This is the tsetse fly that has a parasite

0:06:29.991,0:06:33.286
that actually gets transferred to humans.

0:06:33.286,0:06:36.257
There is a cure for it,[br]but diagnosis is extremely hard,

0:06:36.257,0:06:39.837
and large parts of Africa are actually[br]suffering with this disease.

0:06:39.837,0:06:41.916
Once we take a closer look,

0:06:41.963,0:06:45.181
we actually start to understand[br]how we talk to them.

0:06:45.181,0:06:48.616
There is a Facebook of this world.[br]Everybody is talking to everybody

0:06:48.616,0:06:52.630
- and now I'm talking not about just[br]our species but every other species

0:06:52.630,0:06:56.432
in some way is connected.[br]And so going out there

0:06:56.432,0:06:59.935
and looking at these things[br]tells us where those connections are.

0:07:02.936,0:07:05.353
So, we come back to the story.

0:07:05.353,0:07:08.416
I had a high school student at MIT

0:07:08.416,0:07:11.957
who walked into my office and[br]he was looking for a science project.

0:07:11.957,0:07:17.996
I was in my office and there was a fly[br]in my office buzzing around.

0:07:19.826,0:07:21.985
I build tools to study biology

0:07:21.985,0:07:24.986
and I said: "Geez, this looks like[br]a funny thing we should catch.

0:07:24.986,0:07:26.906
So this is the exact fly that we caught.

0:07:26.906,0:07:28.966
And I'm going to show you[br]very quickly

0:07:28.966,0:07:32.318
all kinds of amazing things[br]that are in there.

0:07:33.179,0:07:36.358
So, this is the first look.[br]You take any fly.

0:07:36.358,0:07:39.193
You give it a drop of water[br]with a little bit of sugar.

0:07:39.193,0:07:42.297
You look from the top,[br]just from any regular camera.

0:07:42.727,0:07:46.638
So, this is the mouth part[br]and it's fluctuating at around 7Hz.

0:07:47.021,0:07:50.603
The drop acts as a lens,[br]so you get to see a little deeper.

0:07:50.603,0:07:53.483
So, no other tools other than a camera.

0:07:53.741,0:07:57.093
The thing about this feeding mechanism

0:07:57.862,0:08:00.722
is the fact that physically[br]it should not be possible.

0:08:00.722,0:08:03.291
As you add more and more sugar to water,

0:08:03.291,0:08:05.589
it turns from water to honey.

0:08:05.620,0:08:07.827
Honey is really hard to pump.

0:08:07.827,0:08:10.790
It´s like cement at that length scales[br]when you go smaller.

0:08:10.790,0:08:15.133
How are these creatures doing something[br]that we have no idea how to do?

0:08:15.471,0:08:17.287
So, we go set up and experiment.

0:08:17.287,0:08:18.980
We built an X-ray microscope

0:08:18.980,0:08:22.786
- which is really fantastic because[br]we get to see what's in them

0:08:22.786,0:08:24.666
rather than just from the outside.

0:08:24.666,0:08:27.517
So, these are the images[br]of some of the flies.

0:08:27.517,0:08:29.898
And we press a button

0:08:29.898,0:08:32.660
- the same techonology[br]that you get CAT scans from.

0:08:32.660,0:08:35.377
We can do an exact morphological rendering

0:08:35.377,0:08:38.095
of every single muscle in the head of a fly.

0:08:38.095,0:08:41.012
I have to say the fly had to be sacrificed

0:08:41.012,0:08:42.787
for this particular experiment,

0:08:42.787,0:08:46.119
but you see all the little tiny details.

0:08:46.119,0:08:49.559
It turns out their feeding tube[br]goes through a hole in their brain,

0:08:49.559,0:08:53.214
which is very bizarre[br]for why that should be the case.

0:08:53.953,0:08:57.242
So, I'm actually just going[br]to show you the movies.

0:08:57.282,0:09:00.513
Let's see. So, this is the first time[br]anybody has ever seen --

0:09:00.513,0:09:04.645
For hundreds of years, we have known[br]the morphology of these things.

0:09:04.691,0:09:06.577
There have been entomologists out there.

0:09:06.577,0:09:08.711
This is the first time[br]that we can see live.

0:09:08.711,0:09:12.600
This is a fly feeding[br]with the head pointing upwards.

0:09:12.600,0:09:13.710
A tiny little drop.

0:09:13.720,0:09:16.134
And you notice that little loop[br]right there,

0:09:16.170,0:09:18.370
with the tiny little dark fluid.

0:09:18.370,0:09:21.495
So we spike up the fluid with[br]x-ray absorbing material

0:09:21.557,0:09:23.206
so you can actually see it,

0:09:23.206,0:09:26.687
and it's pulsating its little muscle at 7Hz.

0:09:26.994,0:09:30.253
And it has two passive valves[br]on the two sides

0:09:30.253,0:09:35.612
that open and close completely passively[br]to be able to actually regulate this pump.

0:09:38.660,0:09:41.281
So, let me show you another one[br]of a bumblebee,

0:09:41.281,0:09:42.463
which might be exciting.

0:09:42.493,0:09:44.568
So, what's going on is, as I just said,

0:09:44.568,0:09:48.291
there is that little dilator muscle[br]out there that's actually pulsating

0:09:48.291,0:09:50.836
at the same time it's switching[br]on and off

0:09:50.836,0:09:53.381
the two passive valves at the edge,

0:09:53.381,0:09:55.928
and that's how it's pumping fluids.

0:09:56.313,0:09:58.859
And it turns out this is[br]a very generic principle.

0:09:58.859,0:10:01.405
Then we went out there and[br]we caught everything we could

0:10:01.405,0:10:03.951
that would feed. It's very hard[br]to feed these things.

0:10:03.951,0:10:07.981
They will die but they will not eat[br]what you've offered.

0:10:07.981,0:10:10.310
So, we turn out, bumblebees,[br]we know what they feed.

0:10:10.310,0:10:11.759
This is a bumblebee.

0:10:11.769,0:10:14.681
It's hard to see but if you notice,[br]it's a very similar mechanism

0:10:14.691,0:10:17.033
working with very similar principles.

0:10:17.033,0:10:20.495
So, these are very generic principles[br]when you go out and look for them.

0:10:20.756,0:10:23.566
You might ask: Oh, is this even useful?

0:10:23.566,0:10:26.137
That's the first infusion pump[br]that we built.

0:10:26.137,0:10:27.971
We still put motors and gears

0:10:27.971,0:10:30.849
inside human bodies[br]for implantable devices.

0:10:30.879,0:10:32.707
This is a far better way

0:10:32.707,0:10:35.077
of doing something like that[br]if you actually want

0:10:35.077,0:10:38.570
a real solution that will last[br]for a very long time.

0:10:39.878,0:10:44.201
I'm going to close very quickly.[br]I think I'm running out of time.

0:10:44.201,0:10:46.240
What can you do out there?

0:10:46.240,0:10:49.242
Take your bag of tools,[br]whatever those tools are,

0:10:49.242,0:10:53.561
and go on a walk.[br]Look at stuff, find stuff.

0:10:53.561,0:10:57.015
If you find something[br]that you don't know, go pick it up.

0:10:57.015,0:11:01.055
Actually, figure out what it is,[br]what it does, talk to your friends.

0:11:01.055,0:11:05.336
And we organize these walks[br]for basically everybody on campus

0:11:05.336,0:11:08.814
to go out there and --[br]make your own discovery.

0:11:09.045,0:11:12.083
And, believe me, it's fairly easy[br]once you start poking at these things,

0:11:12.083,0:11:14.400
because there are so many of them.

0:11:14.624,0:11:15.997
Thank you so much!

0:11:15.997,0:11:18.571
(Applause)