WEBVTT - DNA Tech 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:07.160 Brought to you by Toyota. Let's go places. Welcome to 0:00:07.360 --> 0:00:14.680 Forward Thinking. Hey there, and welcome to Forward Thinking, the 0:00:14.840 --> 0:00:17.480 podcast that looks at the future and says, if it 0:00:17.680 --> 0:00:20.799 says G T C A C G A C A 0:00:21.000 --> 0:00:24.400 G G, then you shouldn't eat trimp or nuts. I'm 0:00:24.480 --> 0:00:28.040 Jonathan Stricklin, I'm Lauren Folk, and I'm Joe McCormick. That 0:00:28.080 --> 0:00:30.400 was a strange one, But today is going to be 0:00:30.520 --> 0:00:33.239 part two of a two part episode we're doing on 0:00:33.520 --> 0:00:36.360 d n A. So last time, what did we talk about, y'all? 0:00:36.479 --> 0:00:38.640 How we talked about a d n A A lot. 0:00:40.360 --> 0:00:43.960 We we talked about the the history of humans knowing 0:00:44.000 --> 0:00:46.400 about DNA. We talked about what it is and what 0:00:46.479 --> 0:00:49.000 it does, where it might come from, where it may 0:00:49.080 --> 0:00:53.880 come from Mail Night, interesting research that we're learning about 0:00:53.960 --> 0:00:57.120 DNA in more recent years, and uh, and in ways 0:00:57.160 --> 0:00:59.960 we can use it for medical purposes. Yeah, And today 0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:02.040 we wanted to look at other ways we could use 0:01:02.120 --> 0:01:05.679 DNA as a technology as a tool. And some of 0:01:05.720 --> 0:01:08.720 them are ways that you're probably familiar with if you've 0:01:08.720 --> 0:01:11.479 ever watched any like police procedural type stuff or anything 0:01:11.480 --> 0:01:13.520 like that. But we've got a lot of other uses, 0:01:13.880 --> 0:01:17.160 including some pretty mind blowing ones. Actually, I'd say all 0:01:17.160 --> 0:01:19.640 of these are mind blowing because DNA as a as 0:01:19.680 --> 0:01:23.640 an English literature major who hasn't had any kind of 0:01:24.080 --> 0:01:28.640 uh organic chemistry or biology courses in a very long time, 0:01:28.680 --> 0:01:34.640 this is all fascinating and terrifying to me because they're 0:01:34.640 --> 0:01:38.160 a long molecules. Man, you don't know what they're do 0:01:38.160 --> 0:01:41.000 you have nightmares where you're just climbing down the infinite 0:01:41.000 --> 0:01:43.080 twisting ladder and you never reached the bottom. I have 0:01:43.160 --> 0:01:46.760 nightmares where Mr DNA is chasing me through the kitchen, 0:01:47.200 --> 0:01:53.120 and it's not exactly that's it, Mr DNA chasing me 0:01:53.160 --> 0:01:56.720 down an endless hallway, over and over. Let's get on 0:01:56.760 --> 0:01:59.160 with the show, all right. Okay, well let's start with 0:01:59.200 --> 0:02:02.320 the present. We're gonna it into some potential future technological 0:02:02.400 --> 0:02:05.200 uses of DNA. But what do we use DNA for 0:02:05.320 --> 0:02:09.079 today besides making our own bodies? Ah? Well, it's it's 0:02:09.080 --> 0:02:13.360 honestly pretty pedestrian stuff. Okay, maybe maybe not pedestrian, And 0:02:13.400 --> 0:02:17.040 that's that's a dismissive word that that belies the wonder 0:02:17.080 --> 0:02:24.000 and amazement of stuff like like personal identification. Okay, we 0:02:24.000 --> 0:02:26.520 we can take a sample of stuff and tell who 0:02:26.639 --> 0:02:30.000 it came from. That's pretty rad I like how you 0:02:30.040 --> 0:02:33.640 say stuff. Well, I mean, you know, there's it can 0:02:33.680 --> 0:02:35.400 be a bone fragment, it can be some blood, it 0:02:35.400 --> 0:02:42.560 can be hair, plus could be your eyeball. Yeah sure. Uh. 0:02:42.600 --> 0:02:45.360 And and as as we all know, like in forensics 0:02:45.400 --> 0:02:49.400 or paternity tests or historical studies of human remains, like 0:02:49.480 --> 0:02:52.120 Richard the third or whatever that is. Uh, is that 0:02:52.160 --> 0:02:56.280 the guy that we found under a car part? To 0:02:56.320 --> 0:02:58.880 call him? Just checking that I wasn't thinking about something 0:02:58.919 --> 0:03:01.120 else anyway. So yeah, yeah, we we can do all 0:03:01.160 --> 0:03:04.520 of those things with DNA today, and and it's it's 0:03:04.520 --> 0:03:08.040 probably the largest commercial field that we are using DNA 0:03:08.120 --> 0:03:12.520 as a tool in currently. Another upcoming one is DNA 0:03:12.919 --> 0:03:17.520 sequencing as a branch of consumer health. Uh, because depending 0:03:17.560 --> 0:03:20.440 on what country you currently call home, you can either 0:03:20.840 --> 0:03:25.120 directly order or have a doctor order genetic tests, um, 0:03:25.200 --> 0:03:28.800 you know, tests that sequence your DNA either from a 0:03:28.800 --> 0:03:33.760 few specific genes or from your entire genome. And right now, 0:03:33.960 --> 0:03:37.000 mostly those tests are being used to tell you your 0:03:37.080 --> 0:03:40.680 your likelihood of developing certain diseases like a cancer or 0:03:40.800 --> 0:03:44.320 or or heart disease stuff like that. But in the future, 0:03:45.000 --> 0:03:48.640 This might be a commonly used way of helping people 0:03:48.720 --> 0:03:52.280 make all kinds of honestly pretty mundane lifestyle choices about 0:03:52.320 --> 0:03:56.160 like diet and exercise and sleep patterns and sun exposure 0:03:56.440 --> 0:03:59.040 and and all kinds of stuff. That's a whole other 0:03:59.120 --> 0:04:01.920 episode though, And it's also something that I know some 0:04:02.000 --> 0:04:05.680 doctors are a little skittish about because they're worried that 0:04:05.760 --> 0:04:08.280 people will go to private companies. In fact, this was 0:04:08.320 --> 0:04:10.360 one of the reasons that in America it's been a 0:04:10.440 --> 0:04:13.560 big issue of the of the FDA regulating it. Yeah, right, 0:04:13.600 --> 0:04:15.880 about going to a company and getting one of these, uh, 0:04:15.960 --> 0:04:18.000 these sequences printed out for you to tell you, like 0:04:18.040 --> 0:04:20.800 how likely are you to develop these things? Because they're worried. 0:04:20.880 --> 0:04:23.760 Doctors are worried that people will start to make medical 0:04:23.800 --> 0:04:27.080 decisions without having a full understanding of what it is 0:04:27.160 --> 0:04:30.200 they're actually being presented with. Oh yeah, right, Because, as 0:04:30.200 --> 0:04:34.280 we were talking about in the previous episode, DNA is complicated. 0:04:34.760 --> 0:04:36.800 G and genes are not and we we've said before 0:04:36.839 --> 0:04:39.520 on the show jeans are not on off switches that 0:04:39.520 --> 0:04:43.240 that necessarily lead to a particular thing, And it's really 0:04:43.320 --> 0:04:46.280 your entire genome together with a whole lot of environmental 0:04:46.279 --> 0:04:49.200 effects that determine what's going to happen in your body. 0:04:49.640 --> 0:04:52.680 So so yeah, I mean, I mean, caution is definitely necessitated, 0:04:52.720 --> 0:04:54.840 and it will be interesting to see where it goes, 0:04:55.200 --> 0:04:57.479 especially in this near future that's kind of like wild 0:04:57.480 --> 0:05:01.279 West we're living in where we have more information then 0:05:01.520 --> 0:05:05.360 we know how to read. Another use for DNA though, 0:05:05.440 --> 0:05:11.599 Currently is UM is creating recombinant DNA, which is a 0:05:11.600 --> 0:05:13.960 a molecule of DNA that's been synthesized in a lab 0:05:14.040 --> 0:05:18.280 to include genetic information from more than one organism, and 0:05:18.440 --> 0:05:20.960 you know that, the idea being that the resulting organism 0:05:20.960 --> 0:05:25.520 will have beneficial properties or capabilities. And the most famous 0:05:25.520 --> 0:05:30.560 example of this is is GMO crops genetically modified organisms 0:05:30.560 --> 0:05:33.279 that are you know, meant to be eaten by us. 0:05:33.839 --> 0:05:36.680 And we we did a couple episodes all about this 0:05:36.800 --> 0:05:41.400 back in July, I believe, But but real, real, briefly 0:05:41.440 --> 0:05:45.600 about GMOs, y'all. Just because food has been genetically modified 0:05:45.680 --> 0:05:48.520 doesn't mean it's bad or dangerous or unhealthy. Yeah, if 0:05:48.560 --> 0:05:51.000 you put fish jeans in a tomato, it doesn't necessarily 0:05:51.040 --> 0:05:53.600 mean that tomato is going to taste fishy. Ye. Now, 0:05:53.600 --> 0:05:56.039 of course That also doesn't mean that it's not possible 0:05:56.120 --> 0:05:59.840 to use genetically modified organisms in agriculture that might be 0:06:00.040 --> 0:06:04.120 environmentally unsound or something like that. But there's nothing inherently 0:06:04.200 --> 0:06:08.520 wrong with the process of modifying an organism's genes in 0:06:08.600 --> 0:06:11.720 a laboratory setting, because we do it outside a laboratory 0:06:11.720 --> 0:06:17.359 setting already all the time, constantly and unconsciously. Yeah. Um. 0:06:17.400 --> 0:06:21.919 Although that that isn't the only use for recombinant DNA techniques. 0:06:22.040 --> 0:06:26.960 For for example, you've got bioremediation, which is a long 0:06:27.000 --> 0:06:30.240 word that means that we can use we can use 0:06:31.320 --> 0:06:35.840 organisms to clean up our messes basically. So okay, So, 0:06:35.880 --> 0:06:41.120 for example, researchers have engineered a kind of bacteria that 0:06:41.480 --> 0:06:46.280 eat harmful pollutants and excrete harmless by products. Yeah. So 0:06:46.320 --> 0:06:48.200 this is like when you spill food on the floor 0:06:48.240 --> 0:06:51.200 and you let your dog look it up, except instead 0:06:51.200 --> 0:06:53.800 of a dog, it's a whole lot of bacteria, and 0:06:53.880 --> 0:06:56.039 instead of food on your floor, it's an oil spill 0:06:56.080 --> 0:06:59.680 that's literally ruining the ecosystem of a very large area 0:06:59.800 --> 0:07:06.240 and and putting putting adorable penguins in dire danger. Um. 0:07:06.279 --> 0:07:09.280 It's also World Penguin Day, as we record this is it, 0:07:09.279 --> 0:07:12.720 It really is. It's DNA Day and World Penguin Day, 0:07:12.880 --> 0:07:16.600 same day. They have to share, fair enough, I mean penguins. 0:07:16.600 --> 0:07:19.800 Penguins are sharing to be fair though. It's National DNA Day, 0:07:19.840 --> 0:07:22.920 but World Penguin Day. Hold on, let me blow your mind. 0:07:22.960 --> 0:07:26.360 Did you know that all penguins on Earth have DNA 0:07:27.480 --> 0:07:30.840 except for one? And his name is Bruce. Bruce, what 0:07:30.880 --> 0:07:34.520 do you do? And Bruce? All right, I'm sorry we 0:07:34.640 --> 0:07:37.440 got off topic. So yes, you can. You can create 0:07:37.480 --> 0:07:41.840 bacteria that are like really efficient at degrading crude oil, 0:07:42.240 --> 0:07:45.080 and and so you spray colonies of these suckers over 0:07:45.120 --> 0:07:48.800 an oil spill and they help clean the area up. Um. 0:07:48.840 --> 0:07:53.200 There's been other projects where researchers created bacteria. Well, okay, 0:07:53.240 --> 0:07:56.320 there are bacteria that exist that break down t N 0:07:56.400 --> 0:07:58.480 t UM, which I'm not going to say the full 0:07:58.520 --> 0:08:00.440 name for because I can't pronounce it um, but but 0:08:00.440 --> 0:08:03.560 it's that explosive and it's it's commonly used for example 0:08:03.560 --> 0:08:08.080 in land mines and UH, and researchers create added genes 0:08:08.120 --> 0:08:11.040 to this type of bacteria that let them that make 0:08:11.120 --> 0:08:15.080 them glow when they break down t N t So 0:08:15.320 --> 0:08:18.280 you add these suckers to to soil in an area 0:08:18.360 --> 0:08:20.640 that you think might contain land mines, and then you 0:08:20.680 --> 0:08:23.360 can do like a helicopter survey and see if it's glowing, 0:08:23.600 --> 0:08:26.200 and if it is, you know that that you know 0:08:26.560 --> 0:08:29.040 a don't go there right now, don't don't walk around 0:08:29.400 --> 0:08:32.800 um and and be add more bacteria there and they 0:08:32.800 --> 0:08:37.000 can eventually process that t NT. Yeah that's amazing. Yeah, 0:08:37.200 --> 0:08:39.520 it almost you could work intuitively. I mean, in a 0:08:39.600 --> 0:08:42.199 in a war zone, you might naturally want to avoid 0:08:42.559 --> 0:08:47.360 fields that are glowing. Right It's not actually no, right now, 0:08:47.360 --> 0:08:49.720 whenever anything's glowing, I'm like, oh, let me go over there. 0:08:50.480 --> 0:08:54.320 I bet that has a health potion in it, thinking 0:08:54.400 --> 0:09:00.240 like another Ravell. Never mind, we'll use the helicopters. So 0:09:00.240 --> 0:09:02.640 so let's let's talk about some other kind of cool 0:09:02.880 --> 0:09:07.240 emerging or possibly a slightly futuristic uses of DNA. And 0:09:07.520 --> 0:09:09.280 the first one we wanted to talk about is one 0:09:09.360 --> 0:09:12.720 I can't wait to hear about because it's near and 0:09:12.760 --> 0:09:14.680 dear to my heart. As the host of the tech 0:09:14.720 --> 0:09:18.040 Stuff podcast, I really am curious to hear how DNA 0:09:18.120 --> 0:09:24.800 could be used as a diode, a little rectifier. Okay, 0:09:24.800 --> 0:09:29.280 So in April, some researchers from the University of Georgia 0:09:29.960 --> 0:09:33.080 right nearby here in Athens, and uh and Ben Gurion 0:09:33.240 --> 0:09:36.719 University in Israel published a paper in Nature Chemistry, and 0:09:36.800 --> 0:09:39.320 what this was was describing how they were able to 0:09:39.480 --> 0:09:45.079 construct an electrical diode on a single molecule of DNA, 0:09:46.200 --> 0:09:49.400 and if the researchers claims in the press are correct, 0:09:49.480 --> 0:09:52.960 this would be the smallest diode ever constructed by humans. 0:09:53.320 --> 0:09:57.079 I don't know if anybody's disputing that. It seems it 0:09:57.080 --> 0:10:01.880 seems legit. Yeah, yeah, anyway, it's the sort of thing 0:10:01.920 --> 0:10:04.960 that obviously you have to have the evidence to support 0:10:05.000 --> 0:10:06.719 it and everything, But why would you make such a 0:10:06.800 --> 0:10:09.400 claim if if you didn't, it's as small as diode? 0:10:09.520 --> 0:10:12.319 Come on, what's a diode anyway? So a diode is 0:10:12.360 --> 0:10:15.120 an electrical component. You put it in the circuit and 0:10:15.200 --> 0:10:19.760 it allows unidirectional flow of current, or actually what you 0:10:19.760 --> 0:10:23.200 should say is the current flows in one direction very easily, 0:10:23.400 --> 0:10:26.320 but encounters massive resistance if it tries to flow the 0:10:26.320 --> 0:10:29.040 opposite direction. And this can be used in a number 0:10:29.080 --> 0:10:31.800 of ways. For example, just one is as a fail 0:10:31.840 --> 0:10:34.800 safe device so as to prevent damage to equipment if 0:10:34.800 --> 0:10:39.199 the current in a circuit gets reversed. Yeah, it's absolutely imperative. 0:10:39.559 --> 0:10:44.640 Diodes are are one of the most basic units in circuitry. Yeah, 0:10:44.640 --> 0:10:47.119 and it's sort of similar to to like a solenoid 0:10:47.200 --> 0:10:50.440 valve in a in a hose or in an engine 0:10:50.520 --> 0:10:52.559 kind of situation, like when when you have any kind 0:10:52.559 --> 0:10:54.600 of fluid that you want to go from one place 0:10:54.640 --> 0:10:57.320 to another and definitely not go in the other direction. 0:10:57.760 --> 0:11:00.920 Uh So, yes, good times, they're exact. Yeah. So so 0:11:01.760 --> 0:11:04.560 one again, one of the most basic elements of circuitry. 0:11:04.640 --> 0:11:06.760 You're probably really familiar with l e ed s. Those 0:11:06.760 --> 0:11:10.360 are light emitting diodes. They actually serve a purpose beyond 0:11:10.480 --> 0:11:13.640 just emitting light. They actually they are also kind of 0:11:13.679 --> 0:11:16.600 like that that's sort of that that one way street 0:11:16.679 --> 0:11:19.160 sign that says electricity go this way, don't go back 0:11:19.200 --> 0:11:22.920 the other way. And so why is this relevant to that, Well, 0:11:22.960 --> 0:11:26.959 it actually has relevance to computing and to the potential 0:11:27.080 --> 0:11:30.080 termination of Moore's law, which we've talked about on on 0:11:30.200 --> 0:11:34.160 this show before, so brief refresher Moore's law. It's the 0:11:34.360 --> 0:11:37.480 perhaps self fulfilling prophecy of Gordon Moore that the number 0:11:37.520 --> 0:11:42.160 of transistors you can fit onto an integrated circuit doubles 0:11:42.200 --> 0:11:44.800 every two years or so, eighteen months, two years or 0:11:44.800 --> 0:11:49.440 whatever um. And the practical takeaway is that affordable computer 0:11:49.559 --> 0:11:53.400 processing power follows an equivalent rate of evolution. Right, So 0:11:53.440 --> 0:11:56.480 these days we wouldn't say that in two years time 0:11:56.520 --> 0:12:00.720 we're going to fit twice as many uh discreet elements 0:12:00.760 --> 0:12:04.120 on an integrated circuit. It doesn't follow that that pathway anymore. 0:12:04.120 --> 0:12:06.680 What instead we would tend to say is that the 0:12:06.679 --> 0:12:09.280 computers two years from now will be or eighteen months 0:12:09.320 --> 0:12:11.800 from now will be twice as as powerful, will be 0:12:11.840 --> 0:12:14.560 twice as fast as kind of Moore's law is one 0:12:14.600 --> 0:12:17.040 of those things where the definition of Moore's law changes 0:12:17.640 --> 0:12:21.240 every few years or so. But the just also, it's 0:12:21.280 --> 0:12:23.120 not a law, right, It's not a law it was 0:12:23.160 --> 0:12:25.319 it was originally an observation, like you said, it had 0:12:25.360 --> 0:12:28.600 more to do with economics than actual computing power. The 0:12:28.640 --> 0:12:33.360 idea was that the ability to to uh manufacture chips 0:12:33.360 --> 0:12:36.760 that would have more discrete elements on them was going 0:12:36.800 --> 0:12:39.720 to become economically feasible over time. So he was really 0:12:39.760 --> 0:12:44.920 saying that because of the scale of manufacturing involved in 0:12:44.920 --> 0:12:49.160 our ability to innovate, it will allow for what we 0:12:49.280 --> 0:12:52.520 didn't have, as you know, the doubling of processing power 0:12:52.559 --> 0:12:54.960 every every eighteen months. But we dumb it down a lot. 0:12:55.240 --> 0:12:58.720 Talk about our devices in our technoculture depend on this assumption. 0:12:58.880 --> 0:13:01.560 Things keep getting hard where it keeps getting faster. Yeah, 0:13:01.720 --> 0:13:04.800 you Otherwise you wouldn't have smartphones. You could, they would 0:13:04.840 --> 0:13:09.400 do the device would not be large enough to compensate 0:13:09.440 --> 0:13:11.760 for the massive amount of processing power you need to 0:13:11.760 --> 0:13:13.880 do the stuff your smartphone can do. Right, But you 0:13:14.000 --> 0:13:16.400 might be thinking about this now, and you might be thinking, 0:13:16.400 --> 0:13:20.240 wait a second, wait a second. So things keep getting smaller? Uh, 0:13:20.520 --> 0:13:22.840 you can? You can fit more and more power into 0:13:22.920 --> 0:13:28.160 a dense area of of what the computer processing unit is. Eventually, 0:13:28.240 --> 0:13:31.280 aren't you going to run into physics problems? Well, yep, 0:13:32.040 --> 0:13:34.320 Eventually you are going to reach the limits of what 0:13:34.400 --> 0:13:38.360 you can do on a reasonably sized silicon semiconductor chip. 0:13:39.160 --> 0:13:42.800 You run into basic physics and chemistry issues. So is 0:13:42.840 --> 0:13:46.160 there any way to keep packing electronics and computer power 0:13:46.640 --> 0:13:51.120 into smaller and smaller spaces? Could we have electronic components, 0:13:51.160 --> 0:13:56.960 including computing components, packed into a single molecule Maybe? And 0:13:57.120 --> 0:14:02.400 DNA might be the answer according to this d SO anyway, 0:14:02.800 --> 0:14:05.840 the lead author of the study bing Quon Zoo has 0:14:05.920 --> 0:14:11.400 pointed to quote the predictability, diversity, and programmability of DNA 0:14:11.480 --> 0:14:14.400 as attributes that make it sort of an ideal building 0:14:14.440 --> 0:14:18.760 material for nanoscale electronics. You know, electronics that are on 0:14:18.800 --> 0:14:22.120 the molecule level. They're tiny. So in this experiment in 0:14:22.160 --> 0:14:25.360 the paper I mentioned earlier, Zoo and his colleagues built 0:14:25.400 --> 0:14:29.520 a single duplex DNA molecule out of eleven base pairs, 0:14:30.080 --> 0:14:33.640 and then they inserted it into a tiny circuit. And 0:14:33.680 --> 0:14:37.560 then the team placed a molecule called coraline in between 0:14:37.680 --> 0:14:41.760 specific layers of the DNA coil, and with this they 0:14:41.760 --> 0:14:45.360 were able to observe the DNA structure doing what a 0:14:45.400 --> 0:14:48.600 diode should do, meaning it allowed current to flow one 0:14:48.640 --> 0:14:51.040 way but not the other. It specifically, the kernel out 0:14:51.040 --> 0:14:53.760 in the circuit was fifteen times stronger one way than 0:14:53.800 --> 0:14:57.160 it was the other. So they had built a DNA diode, 0:14:57.280 --> 0:15:00.760 or as I like to think of it, bingo diode 0:15:01.040 --> 0:15:04.960 DNA MR DNA. Are you going to chase be done 0:15:04.960 --> 0:15:08.840 that hallway again? Anyway? So a quote every Night Jenn 0:15:09.760 --> 0:15:12.360 a quote Zoo gave to the press. He said, our 0:15:12.360 --> 0:15:15.359 discovery can lead to progress in the design and construction 0:15:15.440 --> 0:15:19.160 of nanoscale electronics elements that are at least one thousand 0:15:19.240 --> 0:15:23.400 times smaller than current components. So I think that's really interesting. 0:15:23.480 --> 0:15:26.400 What if one day we have uh, you know, uh, 0:15:26.600 --> 0:15:31.280 nanoscale electronics, tiny computing elements, computers that are built out 0:15:31.440 --> 0:15:35.840 of organic molecules and DNA, And I mean obviously, like 0:15:35.840 --> 0:15:38.440 if we're going to have armies of nano robots, this 0:15:38.560 --> 0:15:41.560 is going to be part of it. Yeah, very likely. 0:15:41.600 --> 0:15:42.920 I mean you have to get to a point if 0:15:42.920 --> 0:15:46.120 you have a robot that has its own ability to 0:15:46.160 --> 0:15:48.120 control its own motions as opposed to some sort of 0:15:48.160 --> 0:15:51.520 external force, because most of the nanobots that we have 0:15:51.800 --> 0:15:55.560 talked about in previous episodes rely on some sort of 0:15:55.560 --> 0:16:01.480 external system manipulating their motion, like a electromy metic frequencies 0:16:01.560 --> 0:16:04.520 or ultrasonic frequencies or some kind of chemical reaction to 0:16:04.520 --> 0:16:06.640 what's going on. Because because the way that we've been 0:16:06.680 --> 0:16:10.560 designing them, obviously the researchers say, we could never possibly 0:16:10.600 --> 0:16:13.880 have an energy source, right, So smaller energy control that's 0:16:13.920 --> 0:16:16.960 small to be within something like that, So fascinating, very 0:16:16.960 --> 0:16:20.800 cool stuff. And uh, I just love the idea that 0:16:20.840 --> 0:16:24.040 we could eventually have computers that could get a computer 0:16:24.200 --> 0:16:28.800 virus that could potentially be a real virus. Uh. One 0:16:28.800 --> 0:16:30.680 of the other things that we've talked about on this 0:16:30.840 --> 0:16:34.000 show before is the idea of programmable matter. Yeah, the 0:16:34.080 --> 0:16:38.040 idea of having having just just stuff that you would 0:16:38.080 --> 0:16:40.720 then send some sort of command to and it would 0:16:40.760 --> 0:16:44.360 take whatever shape or form are not just form factor 0:16:44.400 --> 0:16:47.080 but function that you need it to do. Yeah, And 0:16:47.160 --> 0:16:50.080 it's funny because one of the main inspirations for stuff 0:16:50.120 --> 0:16:53.360 like this is going to be organic matter like proteins. 0:16:53.520 --> 0:16:56.760 You know, proteins can fold and refold themselves to take 0:16:56.840 --> 0:17:00.960 on shapes that they need to do their function. And 0:17:01.080 --> 0:17:04.120 so if you have programma, will matter the matter should 0:17:04.160 --> 0:17:08.200 be able to maybe reshape itself or rearrange itself, either 0:17:08.600 --> 0:17:13.040 by moving different components around or by changing the shape 0:17:13.040 --> 0:17:16.960 of the components to make different overall forms. Right the 0:17:17.119 --> 0:17:20.199 way that the basic molecule collagen is the stuff that 0:17:20.240 --> 0:17:22.879 makes your bones and your skin and structures and your 0:17:22.880 --> 0:17:25.359 eyeballs and all kinds of different tissues in your body, 0:17:25.640 --> 0:17:28.160 And it's the same basic protein, but it folds itself 0:17:28.240 --> 0:17:31.920 up into all kinds of different shapes. So, uh, well, 0:17:32.240 --> 0:17:35.359 there's a group of researchers from Northwestern University who have 0:17:35.480 --> 0:17:39.919 been looking at using DNA along with gold nanoparticles to 0:17:40.040 --> 0:17:44.320 create different shapes, and it's kind of interesting how they're 0:17:44.359 --> 0:17:46.920 doing it. So what they're doing, they're essentially coding these 0:17:46.960 --> 0:17:51.800 gold nanoparticles with small strips of DNA. So you can 0:17:51.840 --> 0:17:54.800 think of it as but just one half of a 0:17:54.880 --> 0:17:58.840 DNA strands. So you imagine splitting that that ladder down 0:17:58.920 --> 0:18:01.320 the middle and you've got one half of the strand 0:18:01.440 --> 0:18:05.160 on these gold nano particles. By introducing them to the 0:18:05.200 --> 0:18:09.960 other half, the complementary half of that DNA strand, they 0:18:09.960 --> 0:18:12.840 can cause the gold nano particles to take all sorts 0:18:12.840 --> 0:18:16.399 of different crystalline shapes. So this is a very tiny, 0:18:16.400 --> 0:18:20.920 tiny version, this nano sized version of this pluripotent material 0:18:21.280 --> 0:18:22.760 that we've talked about in the past. So it's not 0:18:22.800 --> 0:18:26.000 something that you would use to make a giant armchair. 0:18:26.280 --> 0:18:29.640 You're not gonna have the golden throne for your Game 0:18:29.640 --> 0:18:34.040 of Thrones party. It's not gonna happen. But it's possible 0:18:34.440 --> 0:18:38.399 that this sort of approach could lead to uh advances 0:18:38.400 --> 0:18:42.600 in optics. So, for example, when you're designing something a lens, 0:18:42.760 --> 0:18:45.760 let's say, uh, you want to be able to control 0:18:45.840 --> 0:18:48.720 exactly what kind of light can pass through that lens. 0:18:49.400 --> 0:18:52.800 By shaping these crystalline structures at the right distance from 0:18:52.840 --> 0:18:55.359 one another. You can control for that you can allow 0:18:55.400 --> 0:18:57.560 it to or you can you can design such way 0:18:57.600 --> 0:19:00.359 that allows certain types of light, like certain colors of 0:19:00.440 --> 0:19:03.880 light to pass through, but not others, because you can 0:19:04.000 --> 0:19:07.760 you can be fine tune those spaces so well that 0:19:07.840 --> 0:19:10.440 certain wavelengths of light are the only ones allowed through, 0:19:10.960 --> 0:19:13.479 which is really kind of fascinating when you think about it, 0:19:13.520 --> 0:19:16.919 and it creates all sorts of different possibilities, including stuff 0:19:16.960 --> 0:19:21.680 like a um advanced laser optics. So really an interesting idea, 0:19:22.080 --> 0:19:24.359 not necessarily something that we're going to see as a 0:19:24.400 --> 0:19:29.280 practical application in our daily lives, but when you talk about, 0:19:29.359 --> 0:19:31.840 you know, sort of this high end tech approach, it's 0:19:32.000 --> 0:19:37.120 really an interesting possibility. Okay, does does anyone have anything 0:19:37.320 --> 0:19:39.960 that is a little bit more like ground level practical 0:19:40.080 --> 0:19:42.840 something that could potentially change the way that we that 0:19:42.920 --> 0:19:45.320 we do live our lives. Well, all right, we've we've 0:19:45.359 --> 0:19:48.960 talked in the past about how antibiotics are pretty amazing, 0:19:49.000 --> 0:19:51.919 but they're also something that we've depended upon, so heavily 0:19:51.960 --> 0:19:53.879 that we may have shot ourselves in the foot a 0:19:53.880 --> 0:19:56.080 little bit. And by shot ourselves in the foot a 0:19:56.119 --> 0:20:01.400 little bit, I mean given rise to potential really dangerous 0:20:01.400 --> 0:20:04.040 bacteria that we cannot defend ourselves against because they are 0:20:04.080 --> 0:20:08.359 resistant to antibiotics. So we're creating the bacterial equivalent of Doomsday, 0:20:08.720 --> 0:20:12.640 where you just continue destroying them over and over again 0:20:12.720 --> 0:20:15.680 until they become invincible. Yeah, by foot we mean face, 0:20:15.760 --> 0:20:18.399 and by face we mean immune system. Right, So in 0:20:18.440 --> 0:20:24.000 our batman versus superman versus bacterial infection, the bacterial infection 0:20:24.040 --> 0:20:27.400 has got a big leg up on everybody else right now, because, 0:20:27.800 --> 0:20:30.320 like we said, it leads to this this kind of 0:20:30.359 --> 0:20:35.119 superbug situation where you have bacteria that can infect a 0:20:35.160 --> 0:20:38.399 person and antibiotics will have no effect against them because 0:20:38.400 --> 0:20:41.960 the bacterial the bacteria have already developed an immunity to 0:20:42.080 --> 0:20:46.800 that antibiotic. Uh So, one other approach we could use 0:20:47.280 --> 0:20:50.840 is using DNA to create viruses that target bacteria. So, 0:20:50.840 --> 0:20:52.840 in other words, we make a bug to kill a bug. 0:20:53.760 --> 0:20:55.600 So I have to remind you that viruses and bacteria 0:20:55.640 --> 0:20:58.640 are not the same thing, and they're not really They're 0:20:58.720 --> 0:21:02.680 very dissimilar organically speaking. So the virus would insert viral 0:21:02.760 --> 0:21:07.120 DNA into the bacterial cell, and that viral DNA might 0:21:07.160 --> 0:21:09.360 do one of a couple of different things. It might 0:21:09.760 --> 0:21:13.480 shut down the bacteria's ability to resist antibiotics. So in 0:21:13.520 --> 0:21:16.920 other words, this could be like uh Obi Wan sneaking 0:21:16.920 --> 0:21:19.480 in and turning off that that that tractor beams so 0:21:19.520 --> 0:21:21.960 the millennium falcon can escape, except in this case we're 0:21:21.960 --> 0:21:24.920 talking like more like a force field. So maybe it's 0:21:24.920 --> 0:21:26.399 more like Return of the Jedi where they have to 0:21:26.440 --> 0:21:29.000 go to the force moon of Indoor and destroy the 0:21:29.080 --> 0:21:31.760 ground based force field that's protecting the death Star that 0:21:31.880 --> 0:21:35.320 is fully operational up over in orbit at any rate 0:21:35.440 --> 0:21:39.919 I know I could go, So then you could do that, 0:21:40.040 --> 0:21:42.879 or it could even just kill the bacterial cell, like 0:21:42.960 --> 0:21:47.359 just just let's just bypass all that, or just render 0:21:47.400 --> 0:21:51.280 it harmless. Um So, these are all the basic things 0:21:51.320 --> 0:21:57.360 that this viral genome could do if it were designed properly. Um. 0:21:57.440 --> 0:22:00.119 As a bonus, that approach can be tailored so that 0:22:00.280 --> 0:22:05.000 it targets specific types of bacteria. The virus have protein 0:22:05.080 --> 0:22:09.360 markers on them that search for other specific protein markers, 0:22:09.359 --> 0:22:12.520 and they will ignore anything that doesn't fit that description. Right, 0:22:12.800 --> 0:22:16.800 So it's almost like a cell seeking missile in a way. Well, 0:22:16.920 --> 0:22:18.880 if you design in such a way where it's it's 0:22:18.960 --> 0:22:21.639 looking for this harmful bacteria, it will leave all the 0:22:21.720 --> 0:22:25.480 helpful bacteria alone. Oh that's really great because these days, 0:22:25.640 --> 0:22:28.080 I'm sure that that all y'all have experienced it. When 0:22:28.080 --> 0:22:31.480 you take an antibiotic, uh, you wind up with kind 0:22:31.520 --> 0:22:33.639 of an upset stomach for a few days because in 0:22:33.720 --> 0:22:36.840 addition to clearing out whatever infection you're trying to get 0:22:36.920 --> 0:22:40.320 rid of, that antibiotic is probably also destroying your microbiome, 0:22:40.400 --> 0:22:44.160 which is good for like digesting food, exactly right. So 0:22:44.440 --> 0:22:48.160 this would be potentially a gentler approach and it would 0:22:48.200 --> 0:22:52.520 affect more dangerous bacterial strains. So it's a double win 0:22:52.640 --> 0:22:55.080 if we can make it work. But one of the 0:22:55.080 --> 0:22:57.399 other things I wanted to talk about. In fact, this 0:22:57.480 --> 0:23:00.119 was the basis of a video episode of Forward Thinking, 0:23:00.160 --> 0:23:02.399 and Lauren, you wrote the script and it was phenomenal. 0:23:02.400 --> 0:23:05.560 It's just a really cool idea is using DNA. I 0:23:05.560 --> 0:23:10.240 mean DNA it's all about holding information, right, it's information 0:23:10.280 --> 0:23:13.000 that makes us who we are. But we can use 0:23:13.080 --> 0:23:15.960 DNA to hold other types of information too, and not 0:23:16.160 --> 0:23:20.480 just a little a whole lot of information. Yeah, and 0:23:20.520 --> 0:23:23.280 the train of thought here is that, Okay, we've got 0:23:23.280 --> 0:23:27.600