0:00:01.290,0:00:03.000
I want you to touch your face.

0:00:03.586,0:00:04.857
Go on.

0:00:05.586,0:00:06.989
What do you feel?

0:00:07.013,0:00:08.896
Soft? Squishy?

0:00:09.493,0:00:12.103
It's you, right? You're feeling you?

0:00:13.109,0:00:14.812
Well, it's not quite true.

0:00:15.387,0:00:18.632
You're actually feeling[br]thousands of microscopic creatures

0:00:18.656,0:00:21.197
that live on our face and fingers.

0:00:22.481,0:00:24.203
You're feeling some of the fungi

0:00:24.227,0:00:27.107
that drifted down[br]from the air ducts today.

0:00:27.131,0:00:29.098
They set off our allergies

0:00:29.122,0:00:30.674
and smell of mildew.

0:00:32.045,0:00:36.189
You're feeling some[br]of the 100 billion bacterial cells

0:00:36.213,0:00:37.859
that live on our skin.

0:00:38.453,0:00:42.359
They've been munching away[br]at your skin oils and replicating,

0:00:42.383,0:00:44.645
producing the smells of body odor.

0:00:45.564,0:00:48.479
You're likely even touching[br]the fecal bacteria

0:00:48.503,0:00:52.163
that sprayed onto you the last time[br]you flushed a toilet,

0:00:52.187,0:00:55.311
or those bacteria that live[br]in our water pipes

0:00:55.335,0:00:57.794
and sprayed onto you[br]with your last shower.

0:00:58.666,0:00:59.817
Sorry.

0:00:59.841,0:01:01.309
(Laughter)

0:01:01.333,0:01:04.897
You're probably even giving[br]a microscopic high five

0:01:04.921,0:01:08.646
to the two species of mites[br]that live on our faces,

0:01:08.670,0:01:10.338
on all of our faces.

0:01:10.877,0:01:13.523
They've spent the night[br]squirming across your face

0:01:13.547,0:01:16.395
and having sex on the bridge of your nose.

0:01:16.419,0:01:19.009
(Laughter)

0:01:19.970,0:01:24.132
Many of them are now leaking[br]their gut contents onto your pores.

0:01:24.156,0:01:26.212
(Laughter)

0:01:26.236,0:01:27.700
Now look at your finger.

0:01:28.366,0:01:30.467
How's it feel? Gross?

0:01:30.491,0:01:32.871
In desperate need of soap or bleach?

0:01:34.372,0:01:35.986
That's how you feel now,

0:01:36.010,0:01:38.622
but it's not going to be[br]how you feel in the future.

0:01:39.454,0:01:41.379
For the last 100 years,

0:01:41.403,0:01:43.380
we've had an adversarial relationship

0:01:43.404,0:01:46.019
with the microscopic life nearest us.

0:01:46.043,0:01:48.165
If I told you there was[br]a bug in your house

0:01:48.189,0:01:49.423
or bacteria in your sink,

0:01:49.447,0:01:51.774
there was a human-devised[br]solution for that,

0:01:51.798,0:01:54.934
a product to eradicate, exterminate,

0:01:54.958,0:01:56.251
disinfect.

0:01:56.843,0:02:00.718
We strive to remove most[br]of the microscopic life in our world now.

0:02:01.822,0:02:06.515
But in doing so, we're ignoring[br]the best source of new technology

0:02:06.539,0:02:07.755
on this planet.

0:02:08.624,0:02:14.270
The last 100 years have featured[br]human solutions to microbial problems,

0:02:14.294,0:02:19.758
but the next 100 years will feature[br]microbial solutions to human problems.

0:02:20.511,0:02:22.880
I'm a scientist, and I work[br]with researchers

0:02:22.904,0:02:26.180
at North Carolina State University[br]and the University of Colorado

0:02:26.204,0:02:29.798
to uncover the microscopic[br]life that is nearest us,

0:02:30.817,0:02:34.685
and that's often in our most intimate[br]and boring environments,

0:02:34.709,0:02:37.867
be it under our couches, in our backyards,

0:02:37.891,0:02:39.310
or in our belly buttons.

0:02:40.083,0:02:42.953
I do this work because it turns out[br]that we know very little

0:02:42.977,0:02:45.298
about the microscopic life[br]that's nearest us.

0:02:46.281,0:02:48.754
As of a few years ago,[br]no scientist could tell you

0:02:48.778,0:02:51.391
what bugs or microorganisms[br]live in your home --

0:02:52.508,0:02:55.931
your home, the place you know[br]better than anywhere else.

0:02:56.607,0:02:58.347
And so I and teams of others

0:02:58.371,0:03:00.564
are armed with Q-tips and tweezers

0:03:00.588,0:03:02.454
and advanced DNA techniques

0:03:02.478,0:03:05.070
to uncover the microscopic[br]life nearest us.

0:03:06.222,0:03:10.282
In doing so, we found[br]over 600 species of bugs

0:03:10.306,0:03:12.206
that live in USA homes,

0:03:12.230,0:03:14.727
everything from spiders and cockroaches

0:03:14.751,0:03:17.319
to tiny mites that cling to feathers.

0:03:18.090,0:03:23.415
And we found over 100,000 species[br]of bacteria and fungi

0:03:23.439,0:03:25.454
that live in our dust bunnies,

0:03:25.478,0:03:29.012
thousands more that live[br]on our clothes or in our showers.

0:03:30.326,0:03:31.870
We've gone further still,

0:03:31.894,0:03:33.610
and we looked at the microorganisms

0:03:33.634,0:03:37.762
that live inside the bodies[br]of each of those bugs in our home.

0:03:38.508,0:03:41.918
In each bug, for example, a wasp,

0:03:41.942,0:03:46.152
we see a microscopic jungle[br]unfold in a petri plate,

0:03:46.176,0:03:49.453
a world of hundreds of vibrant species.

0:03:49.477,0:03:51.930
Behold the biological cosmos!

0:03:53.531,0:03:55.960
So many of the species[br]you're looking at right now

0:03:55.984,0:03:57.211
don't yet have names.

0:03:57.903,0:04:00.726
Most of the life around us[br]remains unknown.

0:04:01.830,0:04:05.333
I remember the first time I discovered[br]and got to name a new species.

0:04:05.357,0:04:08.851
It was a fungus that lives[br]in the nest of a paper wasp.

0:04:08.875,0:04:11.100
It's white and fluffy,

0:04:11.124,0:04:13.668
and I named it "mucor nidicola,"

0:04:13.692,0:04:16.695
meaning in Latin that it lives[br]in the nest of another.

0:04:17.952,0:04:20.796
This is a picture of it[br]growing on a dinosaur,

0:04:20.820,0:04:23.917
because everyone[br]thinks dinosaurs are cool.

0:04:24.686,0:04:27.002
At the time, I was in graduate school,

0:04:27.026,0:04:30.748
and I was so excited[br]that I had found this new life form.

0:04:30.772,0:04:32.548
I called up my dad, and I go,

0:04:32.572,0:04:35.990
"Dad! I just discovered[br]a new microorganism species."

0:04:36.574,0:04:38.075
And he laughed and he goes,

0:04:38.099,0:04:41.367
"That's great. I hope you also[br]discovered a cure for it."

0:04:41.391,0:04:42.837
(Laughter)

0:04:42.861,0:04:44.033
"Cure it."

0:04:45.202,0:04:47.909
Now, my dad is my biggest fan,

0:04:47.933,0:04:52.303
so in that crushing moment where he wanted[br]to kill my new little life form,

0:04:52.327,0:04:54.873
I realized that actually I had failed him,

0:04:54.897,0:04:57.058
both as a daughter and a scientist.

0:04:57.082,0:05:01.008
In my years toiling away in labs[br]and in people's backyards,

0:05:01.032,0:05:04.712
investigating and cataloging[br]the microscopic life around us,

0:05:04.736,0:05:07.272
I'd never made clear[br]my true mission to him.

0:05:08.444,0:05:10.360
My goal is not to find technology

0:05:10.384,0:05:12.784
to kill the new microscopic[br]life around us.

0:05:13.315,0:05:17.447
My goal is to find new technology[br]from this life, that will help save us.

0:05:19.495,0:05:25.247
The diversity of life in our homes is more[br]than a list of 100,000 new species.

0:05:25.271,0:05:29.239
It is 100,000 new sources[br]of solutions to human problems.

0:05:30.448,0:05:33.149
I know it's hard to believe[br]that anything that's so small

0:05:33.173,0:05:34.331
or only has one cell

0:05:34.355,0:05:35.674
can do anything powerful,

0:05:35.698,0:05:37.035
but they can.

0:05:37.059,0:05:39.904
These creatures[br]are microscopic alchemists,

0:05:39.928,0:05:42.786
with the ability to transform[br]their environment

0:05:42.810,0:05:45.129
with an arsenal of chemical tools.

0:05:45.925,0:05:48.908
This means that they can live[br]anywhere on this planet,

0:05:48.932,0:05:51.319
and they can eat whatever[br]food is around them.

0:05:52.552,0:05:56.861
This means they can eat everything[br]from toxic waste to plastic,

0:05:58.075,0:06:02.590
and they can produce waste products[br]like oil and battery power

0:06:02.614,0:06:05.456
and even tiny nuggets of real gold.

0:06:06.729,0:06:10.290
They can transform the inedible[br]into nutritive.

0:06:10.747,0:06:13.129
They can make sugar into alcohol.

0:06:13.926,0:06:15.839
They give chocolate its flavor,

0:06:15.863,0:06:17.599
and soil the power to grow.

0:06:18.453,0:06:19.620
I'm here to tell you

0:06:19.644,0:06:22.791
that the next 100 years will feature[br]these microscopic creatures

0:06:22.815,0:06:24.420
solving more of our problems.

0:06:24.960,0:06:27.233
And we have a lot of problems[br]to choose from.

0:06:27.762,0:06:31.689
We've got the mundane:[br]bad-smelling clothes or bland food.

0:06:32.464,0:06:34.501
And we've got the monumental:

0:06:34.525,0:06:37.826
disease, pollution, war.

0:06:39.326,0:06:41.010
And so this is my mission:

0:06:41.034,0:06:44.264
to not just catalog[br]the microscopic life around us,

0:06:44.288,0:06:47.537
but to find out what it's uniquely[br]well-suited to help us with.

0:06:48.681,0:06:50.046
Here's an example.

0:06:50.070,0:06:51.702
We started with a pest,

0:06:51.726,0:06:54.074
a wasp that lives on many of our homes.

0:06:54.707,0:06:59.634
Inside that wasp, we plucked out[br]a little-known microorganism species

0:06:59.658,0:07:01.047
with a unique ability:

0:07:01.775,0:07:03.010
it could make beer.

0:07:03.886,0:07:07.411
This is a trait that only[br]a few species on this planet have.

0:07:07.435,0:07:10.296
In fact, all commercially produced[br]beer you've ever had

0:07:10.320,0:07:13.823
likely came from one of only[br]three microorganism species.

0:07:14.729,0:07:18.811
Yet our species, it could make[br]a beer that tasted like honey,

0:07:19.596,0:07:22.238
and it could also make[br]a delightfully tart beer.

0:07:23.043,0:07:26.876
In fact, this microorganism species[br]that lives in the belly of a wasp,

0:07:27.607,0:07:29.904
it could make a valuable sour beer

0:07:29.928,0:07:33.387
better than any other species[br]on this planet.

0:07:34.676,0:07:37.800
There are now four species[br]that produce commercial beer.

0:07:39.197,0:07:41.512
Where you used to see a pest,

0:07:41.536,0:07:44.473
now think of tasting[br]your future favorite beer.

0:07:45.925,0:07:47.454
As a second example,

0:07:47.478,0:07:50.834
I worked with researchers[br]to dig in the dirt in people's backyards.

0:07:51.493,0:07:55.550
There, we uncovered a microorganism[br]that could make novel antibiotics,

0:07:55.574,0:07:58.707
antibiotics that can kill[br]the world's worst superbugs.

0:07:59.690,0:08:02.899
This was an awesome thing to find,

0:08:02.923,0:08:04.301
but here's the secret:

0:08:05.164,0:08:07.084
for the last 60 years,

0:08:07.108,0:08:09.397
most of the antibiotics on the market

0:08:09.421,0:08:11.630
have come from similar soil bacteria.

0:08:12.269,0:08:15.294
Every day, you and I[br]and everyone in this room

0:08:15.318,0:08:17.060
and on this planet,

0:08:17.084,0:08:21.503
are saved by similar soil bacteria[br]that produce most of our antibiotics.

0:08:23.225,0:08:24.898
Where you used to see dirt,

0:08:24.922,0:08:26.853
now think of medication.

0:08:28.402,0:08:31.048
Perhaps my favorite example[br]comes from colleagues

0:08:31.072,0:08:33.968
who are studying[br]a pond scum microorganism,

0:08:33.992,0:08:37.611
which is tragically named after[br]the cow dung it was first found in.

0:08:38.388,0:08:42.346
It's pretty unremarkable[br]and would be unworthy of discussion,

0:08:42.370,0:08:45.892
except that the researchers found[br]that if you feed it to mice,

0:08:45.916,0:08:47.967
it vaccinates against PTSD.

0:08:49.842,0:08:51.746
It vaccinates against fear.

0:08:53.418,0:08:56.640
Where you used to see pond scum,[br]now think of hope.

0:08:58.077,0:09:00.481
There are so many more microbial examples

0:09:00.505,0:09:02.649
that I don't have time[br]to talk about today.

0:09:03.122,0:09:08.506
I gave you examples of solutions[br]that came from just three species,

0:09:08.530,0:09:12.876
but imagine what those other[br]100,000 species in your dust bunnies

0:09:12.900,0:09:14.173
might be able to do.

0:09:14.751,0:09:18.079
In the future, they might be able[br]to make you sexier

0:09:18.758,0:09:20.065
or smarter

0:09:21.035,0:09:22.912
or perhaps live longer.

0:09:24.483,0:09:26.635
So I want you to look[br]at your finger again.

0:09:27.185,0:09:29.471
Think about all those[br]microscopic creatures

0:09:29.495,0:09:30.942
that are unknown.

0:09:30.966,0:09:33.971
Think about in the future[br]what they might be able to do

0:09:33.995,0:09:35.168
or make

0:09:35.708,0:09:37.854
or whose life they might be able to save.

0:09:39.071,0:09:40.874
How does your finger feel right now?

0:09:41.502,0:09:43.007
A little bit powerful?

0:09:44.564,0:09:46.591
That's because you're feeling the future.

0:09:47.210,0:09:48.372
Thank you.

0:09:48.803,0:09:53.424
(Applause)