1 00:00:08,640 --> 00:00:10,280 Over billions of years, 2 00:00:10,280 --> 00:00:14,640 the natural world has evolved exquisite beauty and complexity. 3 00:00:16,760 --> 00:00:20,840 But just recently, we've started to do something remarkable. 4 00:00:20,840 --> 00:00:25,360 We've found a way to take life and radically re-design it. 5 00:00:28,120 --> 00:00:31,520 We have put ourselves in this extraordinary position, 6 00:00:31,520 --> 00:00:36,080 where nature itself can be disassembled into spare parts. 7 00:00:36,080 --> 00:00:40,000 And now we can put them back together, just as we please. 8 00:00:41,080 --> 00:00:46,600 Incredible as it sounds, life itself has become a programmable machine. 9 00:00:51,200 --> 00:00:56,360 These new machines aren't mechanical or electrical, but biological. 10 00:00:58,360 --> 00:01:01,400 And they're starting to change our world. 11 00:01:03,280 --> 00:01:05,200 I'm Dr Adam Rutherford 12 00:01:05,200 --> 00:01:09,320 and I want to explore what we're able to do with this new power. 13 00:01:12,920 --> 00:01:17,320 So what you're telling me is that somewhere on this farm 14 00:01:17,320 --> 00:01:21,280 there is an animal which is part spider, part something else? 15 00:01:25,520 --> 00:01:30,480 This new science can be as unsettling as it is intriguing. 16 00:01:30,480 --> 00:01:33,040 We're in the matrix here, aren't we? 17 00:01:34,080 --> 00:01:37,280 We're granting ourselves unprecedented control 18 00:01:37,280 --> 00:01:40,720 over living things. That is a high-stakes game 19 00:01:40,720 --> 00:01:44,360 and with it comes a question - can this power be abused? 20 00:01:53,640 --> 00:01:57,880 'KSL News Radio, and this is Utah's morning news, 21 00:01:57,880 --> 00:01:59,920 'I'm Grant Nielson... ..And I'm Amanda Dickson. 22 00:01:59,920 --> 00:02:02,600 'Right now, down town it's cloudy, 60 degrees, 23 00:02:02,600 --> 00:02:06,320 'a roll over blocking traffic on I-80...' 24 00:02:09,720 --> 00:02:12,400 Logan County, Utah. 25 00:02:13,720 --> 00:02:15,120 Heartland America. 26 00:02:17,680 --> 00:02:20,760 Where farming is a way of life. 27 00:02:22,160 --> 00:02:24,400 Now I've come here to see something 28 00:02:24,400 --> 00:02:27,280 which I think is truly, truly extraordinary. 29 00:02:27,280 --> 00:02:30,720 This may look like a fairly typical farm - 30 00:02:30,720 --> 00:02:33,760 there's grain over there, there are horses and cows and sheep - 31 00:02:33,760 --> 00:02:36,760 and it certainly smells like a real farm, 32 00:02:36,760 --> 00:02:41,200 but there's one animal here which I think shouldn't really exist. 33 00:02:48,960 --> 00:02:52,800 This isn't your usual farm. It's part of Utah State University. 34 00:02:55,040 --> 00:02:58,440 Professor Randy Lewis is working on a project that shows 35 00:02:58,440 --> 00:03:02,840 if you combine the principles of farming with the latest science, 36 00:03:02,840 --> 00:03:05,920 you quickly find yourself in a very odd place. 37 00:03:09,280 --> 00:03:12,000 It starts with spiders. 38 00:03:13,600 --> 00:03:14,640 Randy. 39 00:03:16,960 --> 00:03:20,600 So what is it about spiders? Well, the spider that we have here 40 00:03:20,600 --> 00:03:22,800 is called an orb-weaver 41 00:03:22,800 --> 00:03:26,400 and she makes six different kinds of silk and the silk we're interested in 42 00:03:26,400 --> 00:03:30,040 is called drag-line silk, they catch themselves with it when they fall. 43 00:03:30,040 --> 00:03:35,520 It's actually stronger than Kevlar. So it really has some amazing properties for any kind of a fibre. 44 00:03:36,560 --> 00:03:40,240 So you've got this amazing property of silk which, I mean, 45 00:03:40,240 --> 00:03:42,840 it's stronger than anything we can make ourselves? 46 00:03:42,840 --> 00:03:43,920 Correct, correct. 47 00:03:43,920 --> 00:03:47,080 So that's an attractive material that we want to get some of. 48 00:03:47,080 --> 00:03:49,360 That's right, we want to make a lot of it. 49 00:03:49,360 --> 00:03:52,760 So we're on a farm here, why don't you just farm the spiders? 50 00:03:52,760 --> 00:03:55,880 They're very cannibalistic so they'll basically kill each other 51 00:03:55,880 --> 00:03:58,200 till everybody has enough room to do it. 52 00:03:58,200 --> 00:04:00,640 So basically spiders are un-farmable. 53 00:04:00,640 --> 00:04:03,880 Spiders are absolutely un-farmable. Can we get her out? Sure. 54 00:04:12,600 --> 00:04:15,800 Ah, she's so... She's beautiful, look at that. 55 00:04:15,800 --> 00:04:21,360 Why would anyone be afraid of that? I just think she's gorgeous. 56 00:04:21,360 --> 00:04:25,120 My hands are actually getting bound in silk as she runs round them, 57 00:04:25,120 --> 00:04:28,200 I'll be cocooned soon. And that's why they call it drag-line. 58 00:04:28,200 --> 00:04:32,240 I mean, she leaves it there the entire time. 59 00:04:32,240 --> 00:04:36,000 We've spent a very long time trying to figure out a way to produce lots of silk 60 00:04:36,000 --> 00:04:39,960 and the only way we've got it is that we have to take the spider silk gene 61 00:04:39,960 --> 00:04:41,560 and transfer it to an animal 62 00:04:41,560 --> 00:04:43,960 that can produce large quantities of the silk. 63 00:04:43,960 --> 00:04:48,680 So what you're telling me is that, somewhere on this farm, 64 00:04:48,680 --> 00:04:53,640 there is an animal which is part spider and part something else. 65 00:04:53,640 --> 00:04:57,800 There are and they will produce large amounts of spider silk 66 00:04:57,800 --> 00:04:59,720 protein for us to turn into fibres. 67 00:04:59,720 --> 00:05:01,480 I think you need to show me that. 68 00:05:13,600 --> 00:05:16,760 These? Goats? These are our goats. 69 00:05:18,320 --> 00:05:21,720 So they're just regular goats. They're absolutely regular goats. 70 00:05:21,720 --> 00:05:24,760 Except they're not, they're totally incredible goats. 71 00:05:24,760 --> 00:05:29,120 So, over here, we have the kids that were born this year 72 00:05:29,120 --> 00:05:31,120 and the older goats are all on that side. 73 00:05:31,120 --> 00:05:34,440 And these are your spider goats. These are the spider goats. 74 00:05:41,320 --> 00:05:43,680 And they're eating my top. 75 00:05:43,680 --> 00:05:49,160 Hey, come on. OK, hey, hey! Behave! Just cos you're on camera. 76 00:05:49,160 --> 00:05:56,120 And so these kids have the genes for a spider in them. 77 00:05:56,120 --> 00:05:58,160 Yeah. This is, it's insane. 78 00:05:58,160 --> 00:06:02,400 And where does the spider silk actually come from? 79 00:06:02,400 --> 00:06:03,960 I mean, where do you get it? 80 00:06:03,960 --> 00:06:05,920 It was designed so it comes in the milk. 81 00:06:05,920 --> 00:06:11,240 They look like such normal goats but in fact they're totally unique 82 00:06:11,240 --> 00:06:13,760 and bizarre. I mean, this is bizarre. 83 00:06:13,760 --> 00:06:15,960 I guess I would not say it's bizarre. 84 00:06:15,960 --> 00:06:19,760 I think that it's certainly different but, you know, 85 00:06:19,760 --> 00:06:24,400 they're absolutely normal, I don't think there's anything different about them. 86 00:06:24,400 --> 00:06:26,760 Hey, Freckles. Come here. 87 00:06:26,760 --> 00:06:30,840 "Freckles"? Come over here. Right, so we have names for all the goats. 88 00:06:30,840 --> 00:06:34,640 She's actually one of the very original goats that was created. 89 00:06:34,640 --> 00:06:37,640 Can we actually milk them now? 90 00:06:37,640 --> 00:06:41,440 Yeah, we can, the two that are standing right here, 57 and 59 91 00:06:41,440 --> 00:06:46,240 who are Pudding and Sweetie. We can milk those and you can see the milk. 92 00:06:46,240 --> 00:06:48,640 Pudding and Sweetie. Pudding and Sweetie. 93 00:06:48,640 --> 00:06:51,400 Freckles, Pudding and Sweetie the spider goats. Yes. 94 00:06:51,400 --> 00:06:55,480 Just a totally regular farm(!) That's right, that's right. 95 00:06:55,480 --> 00:06:56,520 Come on. 96 00:06:58,640 --> 00:07:01,160 Ah, so well behaved as well! 97 00:07:01,160 --> 00:07:04,720 That's right, that's right, they know. Get that out of the way. 98 00:07:04,720 --> 00:07:06,800 There you go, there you go. 99 00:07:08,200 --> 00:07:11,560 So the pumps just go on like that? 100 00:07:12,920 --> 00:07:14,600 That's all there is to it. 101 00:07:14,600 --> 00:07:17,760 Oh, you can see it. You can actually see it coming out. 102 00:07:17,760 --> 00:07:20,000 Yep, you can see milk coming out. 103 00:07:20,000 --> 00:07:23,800 So this is exactly the same as any normal goat milking process. 104 00:07:23,800 --> 00:07:26,600 Absolutely, absolutely. Do exactly the same. 105 00:07:29,520 --> 00:07:35,560 All right, so she's about done and we can disconnect this. 106 00:07:35,560 --> 00:07:39,440 We can now get this open and you can take a look and see. 107 00:07:39,440 --> 00:07:44,800 Well, just looks like normal milk. Looks like absolutely normal milk. 108 00:07:44,800 --> 00:07:48,120 If you do an analysis of it and look at all the components of the milk, 109 00:07:48,120 --> 00:07:52,920 the only thing you'll find is different is one extra protein and that's the spider silk protein. 110 00:07:52,920 --> 00:07:55,080 All the rest looks like normal goats milk. 111 00:07:55,080 --> 00:07:57,320 You make it sound all really matter-of-fact. 112 00:07:57,320 --> 00:07:59,000 I mean, we've just milked a goat, 113 00:07:59,000 --> 00:08:01,600 we're on a farm, it's all rather mundane but, I mean, 114 00:08:01,600 --> 00:08:03,960 this is really cutting-edge science isn't it? 115 00:08:03,960 --> 00:08:08,040 It's much more difficult than it certainly sounds like. 116 00:08:08,040 --> 00:08:11,040 Once you get the embryo, the gene into the embryo 117 00:08:11,040 --> 00:08:12,720 then it really is farming. 118 00:08:12,720 --> 00:08:15,480 So you take the gene from a spider 119 00:08:15,480 --> 00:08:17,800 and then you put it in the goat 120 00:08:17,800 --> 00:08:19,600 but that's not what's in here is it? 121 00:08:19,600 --> 00:08:23,400 There's no, there are no genes in here. No, it's the protein 122 00:08:23,400 --> 00:08:26,400 and spider silk is made out of proteins 123 00:08:26,400 --> 00:08:29,000 same as your hair, same as your skin, 124 00:08:29,000 --> 00:08:32,360 same as all the proteins in your body that digest your food, 125 00:08:32,360 --> 00:08:35,920 that carry oxygen around from your lungs, 126 00:08:35,920 --> 00:08:39,160 it's exactly the same kind of a protein. And the gene itself 127 00:08:39,160 --> 00:08:42,440 is the code to make that protein. Exactly, we take the gene 128 00:08:42,440 --> 00:08:46,720 and that gives in this case the goat instructions to say, "Make spider silk protein," 129 00:08:46,720 --> 00:08:50,840 and they produce it only when they're lactating. 130 00:08:50,840 --> 00:08:55,840 Well, I'm still not entirely convinced, it looks a lot like normal milk to me, 131 00:08:55,840 --> 00:08:58,200 so can you show actually how to get the silk out? 132 00:08:58,200 --> 00:09:03,240 Sure. We'll take it back to the lab and we'll purify the protein and then we'll spin some fibres. OK. 133 00:09:12,080 --> 00:09:14,960 The milk is filtered to remove the fats 134 00:09:14,960 --> 00:09:17,400 and leave only the proteins. 135 00:09:23,720 --> 00:09:27,440 A2nd from this purified protein comes the silk. 136 00:09:30,680 --> 00:09:35,560 Mimicking the spider's behaviour in nature, the silk is pulled out. 137 00:09:37,040 --> 00:09:40,320 And then it can be simply laced onto a spool. 138 00:09:43,840 --> 00:09:48,200 It's incredible, it just looks like spider silk. It's exactly the same. 139 00:09:48,200 --> 00:09:50,840 It looks very much the same. 140 00:09:51,840 --> 00:09:56,200 So this is one continuous thread. And then we wrap it up on a reel. 141 00:09:58,240 --> 00:10:01,880 I can't quite believe that you can make something 142 00:10:01,880 --> 00:10:03,920 that's taken millions of years to evolve, 143 00:10:03,920 --> 00:10:08,000 you can just make it and put it on a roll and we can just pass it between each other. 144 00:10:08,000 --> 00:10:11,960 And even more, we started with the goats. But it's not just for fun, though, is it? 145 00:10:11,960 --> 00:10:16,120 No, there are a lot of applications that we think of, especially in the medical field. 146 00:10:16,120 --> 00:10:18,200 We already know we can produce spider silk 147 00:10:18,200 --> 00:10:21,760 that's good enough to be used in both tendon and ligament repair. 148 00:10:21,760 --> 00:10:24,960 We already know we can make it strong enough and elastic enough, 149 00:10:24,960 --> 00:10:27,920 we've done some studies that show it's biocompatible, 150 00:10:27,920 --> 00:10:30,680 you can put it in the body and you don't get immune response, 151 00:10:30,680 --> 00:10:35,240 you don't got inflammation, you don't get ill, so we hope within even a couple of years, 152 00:10:35,240 --> 00:10:39,000 that we're going to be testing to see exactly the best designs 153 00:10:39,000 --> 00:10:42,600 and the best materials that we make that would be used for that. 154 00:10:42,600 --> 00:10:47,280 Spider silk, made from a goat, implanted into humans. 155 00:10:47,280 --> 00:10:48,320 Exactly. 156 00:10:48,320 --> 00:10:50,360 HE LAUGHS 157 00:10:59,120 --> 00:11:02,560 Now, I don't know what these animals think about being spider goats 158 00:11:02,560 --> 00:11:05,680 or whether they've got any idea at all, 159 00:11:05,680 --> 00:11:09,720 but we've been farming goats for thousands of years now 160 00:11:09,720 --> 00:11:14,000 to make them bigger and stronger and to produce more milk. 161 00:11:14,000 --> 00:11:17,960 And in the space of just one generation, a few years, 162 00:11:17,960 --> 00:11:20,160 these animals have been created 163 00:11:20,160 --> 00:11:23,560 and they couldn't possibly have existed otherwise. 164 00:11:23,560 --> 00:11:28,720 And no matter how amazing or unsettling or just plain bizarre 165 00:11:28,720 --> 00:11:32,600 you think that is, this is just the beginning. 166 00:11:46,360 --> 00:11:51,200 Transferring a single gene from a spider to a goat is one thing, 167 00:11:51,200 --> 00:11:55,640 but what if we had power over the entire genetic code of a life form? 168 00:11:56,960 --> 00:12:00,840 Very recently, we created that power. 169 00:12:00,840 --> 00:12:04,960 And it's raised key questions about how far we should take it. 170 00:12:08,040 --> 00:12:11,560 To really get a grip on where this field is at 171 00:12:11,560 --> 00:12:13,400 we don't have to go back very far. 172 00:12:13,400 --> 00:12:17,600 In just 2010, a team of scientists created something 173 00:12:17,600 --> 00:12:23,040 that generated shock and awe in the press but left the rest of the world 174 00:12:23,040 --> 00:12:26,320 not really quite sure what to make of it all. 175 00:12:29,040 --> 00:12:34,240 A familiar but powerful term was used to describe it - "Playing God". 176 00:12:46,400 --> 00:12:48,520 'In an amazing scientific breakthrough, 177 00:12:48,520 --> 00:12:52,080 'researchers say they've created the first ever synthetic life form. 178 00:12:52,080 --> 00:12:55,600 'They hope it will create life saving medicine and new forms of energy, 179 00:12:55,600 --> 00:12:58,800 'but the development is not without controversy.' 180 00:12:58,800 --> 00:13:02,480 'We're here today to announce the first synthetic cell. 181 00:13:02,480 --> 00:13:06,920 'The electronics industry only had a dozen or so components 182 00:13:06,920 --> 00:13:09,880 'and look at the diversity that came out of that. 183 00:13:09,880 --> 00:13:15,240 'We're limited here primarily by biological reality and our imagination.' 184 00:13:16,440 --> 00:13:20,560 After 15 years and 40 million of research, 185 00:13:20,560 --> 00:13:23,440 Dr Craig Venter had created something unique. 186 00:13:26,600 --> 00:13:31,000 A completely synthetic life form, that was nicknamed Synthia. 187 00:13:32,000 --> 00:13:34,720 But who or what was Synthia? 188 00:13:38,440 --> 00:13:41,600 So this it, Synthia, or to give it its proper name, 189 00:13:41,600 --> 00:13:47,960 Mycoplasma mycoides JCVI-syn 1.0. 190 00:13:47,960 --> 00:13:51,920 It's the very simplest of bacterial cells. Really not much to look at, 191 00:13:51,920 --> 00:13:54,800 but what's truly impressive about this 192 00:13:54,800 --> 00:13:59,760 is the fact that Synthia was not born from another bacteria. 193 00:13:59,760 --> 00:14:03,920 This is the only life form on Earth whose parent is a computer. 194 00:14:05,520 --> 00:14:08,840 'By moving the software of DNA around, 195 00:14:08,840 --> 00:14:11,040 'we can change things dramatically.' 196 00:14:11,040 --> 00:14:17,040 To make Synthia, Craig Venter took a simple cell. 197 00:14:29,440 --> 00:14:35,400 And he took all of its DNA code and plugged that into a computer. 198 00:14:35,400 --> 00:14:39,560 Once the code is in a computer, it's effectively DNA software. 199 00:14:43,360 --> 00:14:47,800 Next, he extracted the DNA from a similar cell... 200 00:14:49,280 --> 00:14:54,560 ..discarded it and went back to the DNA software he'd created. 201 00:14:54,560 --> 00:14:57,080 And then came the really clever bit. 202 00:14:57,080 --> 00:15:01,440 Venter synthesised all of that DNA, just like printing it out. 203 00:15:06,800 --> 00:15:09,920 Now he had a physical version of that DNA software 204 00:15:09,920 --> 00:15:12,080 ready to be inserted into the empty cell. 205 00:15:12,080 --> 00:15:17,120 And with a spark, he booted it up, just like powering up a computer. 206 00:15:17,120 --> 00:15:22,440 Except by any definition, this thing was now a living organism. 207 00:15:24,920 --> 00:15:28,320 Had Craig Venter created life? Not really. 208 00:15:28,320 --> 00:15:32,720 But he had recreated it and, in a sense, rebooted it. 209 00:15:33,880 --> 00:15:37,080 Synthia may have been something quite simple, 210 00:15:37,080 --> 00:15:40,480 a fairly straightforward bacteria, but, after you've set aside 211 00:15:40,480 --> 00:15:44,680 all of the hype, the fact remains that Venter had done something 212 00:15:44,680 --> 00:15:49,160 that has never been achieved in 4 billion years of life on Earth - 213 00:15:49,160 --> 00:15:53,160 he'd made an organism whose parent was a computer. 214 00:15:53,160 --> 00:15:55,680 And that, more than anything else, 215 00:15:55,680 --> 00:16:00,800 demonstrated an unprecedented degree of control over a living thing. 216 00:16:04,320 --> 00:16:08,000 This blurring of the boundaries between computer code 217 00:16:08,000 --> 00:16:11,920 and biology has fuelled a whole new field of science. 218 00:16:22,240 --> 00:16:25,520 With our new-found ability to engineer life, 219 00:16:25,520 --> 00:16:28,600 we can start to think of organisms as biological machines 220 00:16:28,600 --> 00:16:31,560 that are under our control. 221 00:16:31,560 --> 00:16:35,200 And to see where these bold ideas are taking us, 222 00:16:35,200 --> 00:16:37,480 I've come here, to high-tech America. 223 00:16:38,600 --> 00:16:43,000 I reckon these are all quite tricky concepts to get your head around - 224 00:16:43,000 --> 00:16:45,360 things like biological machines, 225 00:16:45,360 --> 00:16:49,160 or that DNA is like software that you can just print out. 226 00:16:49,160 --> 00:16:53,400 This approach has a name, and it's synthetic biology. 227 00:16:53,400 --> 00:16:57,120 Now, even for a biologist this is pretty bewildering stuff 228 00:16:57,120 --> 00:17:01,160 but that is also exactly why it's so exciting. 229 00:17:03,120 --> 00:17:07,720 Professor Ron Weiss was one of the founders of synthetic biology, 230 00:17:07,720 --> 00:17:10,280 there at the beginning of it all, and he started out 231 00:17:10,280 --> 00:17:13,360 not as a biologist, but a computer scientist. 232 00:17:13,360 --> 00:17:16,560 So at first I was interested in understanding how we can take 233 00:17:16,560 --> 00:17:19,560 what we know about biology and apply that to computing. 234 00:17:19,560 --> 00:17:22,760 And at some point, I decided to flip that around and try to take 235 00:17:22,760 --> 00:17:25,960 what we understand in computing and apply that to programming biology 236 00:17:25,960 --> 00:17:30,720 and, to me, that's really the essence of synthetic biology. 237 00:17:30,720 --> 00:17:33,120 And what do you need to get started? 238 00:17:33,120 --> 00:17:37,200 Actually, all that we need is available right here in my bag. 239 00:17:37,200 --> 00:17:41,600 There's one major advantage of having life written in computer code. 240 00:17:41,600 --> 00:17:45,960 All you have to do to access it is get online. 241 00:17:52,120 --> 00:17:57,520 It's an approach that's led to a visionary new take on biology. 242 00:17:57,520 --> 00:18:01,000 We want to think about DNA as parts that we can then glue together 243 00:18:01,000 --> 00:18:03,520 to make more parts, putting systems together, 244 00:18:03,520 --> 00:18:07,440 putting maybe circuits together, built out of these DNA parts. 245 00:18:07,440 --> 00:18:10,680 But where do you get these parts from? They're in our cells. 246 00:18:10,680 --> 00:18:14,000 Right, but the cool thing is you can actually go online 247 00:18:14,000 --> 00:18:17,080 and get new DNA parts. 248 00:18:17,080 --> 00:18:20,280 Let's say for example we want a part that make a blue protein, 249 00:18:20,280 --> 00:18:23,000 so here's that arrow, you see that arrow right, 250 00:18:23,000 --> 00:18:25,280 that arrow is a part that tells the cell, 251 00:18:25,280 --> 00:18:27,880 "Make a protein that creates a blue colour." 252 00:18:27,880 --> 00:18:31,720 That's what it is, and I can put that into my circuit and those parts - 253 00:18:31,720 --> 00:18:34,680 we call them biobricks - and so we can take these biobricks 254 00:18:34,680 --> 00:18:38,680 and actually put them together to assemble, you know, biocircuits. 255 00:18:38,680 --> 00:18:41,160 You said that very casually. 256 00:18:41,160 --> 00:18:44,760 You said that like it hasn't been 4 billion years of evolution 257 00:18:44,760 --> 00:18:47,200 which has got my cells doing what they do. 258 00:18:47,200 --> 00:18:50,120 Right, they do it quite well, and they have a piece of DNA... 259 00:18:50,120 --> 00:18:53,760 QUITE well?! Quite well. It's not perfect though, right? 260 00:18:53,760 --> 00:18:56,360 We die on occasion, we get cancer on occasion. 261 00:18:56,360 --> 00:19:00,160 And you think you can do it better? Um, sometimes, perhaps. 262 00:19:00,160 --> 00:19:03,920 What about actual, useful, real world applications? 263 00:19:03,920 --> 00:19:06,800 So, what else could you do? So, for example, 264 00:19:06,800 --> 00:19:11,080 imagine this program, this piece of DNA which goes into the cell 265 00:19:11,080 --> 00:19:13,120 and it says, "If cancer cell, 266 00:19:13,120 --> 00:19:17,920 "then make a protein that kills the cancer cell, if not just go away." 267 00:19:17,920 --> 00:19:22,520 That's another kind of program that we're able to write and implement 268 00:19:22,520 --> 00:19:25,240 and test in living cells right now. You can do that? 269 00:19:25,240 --> 00:19:29,040 We have done that. It's like a targeted assassin. Yes. 270 00:19:29,040 --> 00:19:30,480 This works in the lab. 271 00:19:30,480 --> 00:19:34,520 It doesn't work quite in a clinic yet, that would be the next step. 272 00:19:34,520 --> 00:19:35,840 That's radical thinking! 273 00:19:35,840 --> 00:19:38,920 It's radically different from anything that's come before. 274 00:19:38,920 --> 00:19:42,040 'Ron doesn't even need to be in a lab 275 00:19:42,040 --> 00:19:45,440 'to put the strands of DNA together to make a biological circuit.' 276 00:19:45,440 --> 00:19:47,800 We actually have biobricks, pieces of DNA here. 277 00:19:47,800 --> 00:19:49,440 So let me put them together. 278 00:19:49,440 --> 00:19:51,560 So I'll take this biobrick and I want say, 279 00:19:51,560 --> 00:19:55,920 I want to put these two together, so I'm going to open up pieces of DNA, 280 00:19:55,920 --> 00:19:58,000 I'm going to take some from here... 281 00:20:00,280 --> 00:20:01,720 ..mix it right there, OK? 282 00:20:01,720 --> 00:20:05,320 We've put two parts together, I'm done with this biobrick. 283 00:20:05,320 --> 00:20:08,880 I need one last component which is the glue, 284 00:20:08,880 --> 00:20:11,800 I need to be able to glue them together, so here's my glue. 285 00:20:11,800 --> 00:20:13,240 I'm going to take that out, 286 00:20:13,240 --> 00:20:17,560 make sure I have just right amount of glue, I'm going to mix them together 287 00:20:17,560 --> 00:20:20,520 and then it's done. 288 00:20:20,520 --> 00:20:23,160 And so, now, in this tube, you've got this circuit, 289 00:20:23,160 --> 00:20:26,080 you've just built a biological machine... 290 00:20:26,080 --> 00:20:28,520 That may never have existed before. 291 00:20:28,520 --> 00:20:32,920 That we've just done in a cafe in downtown San Francisco. In a cafe, you and me together. 292 00:20:32,920 --> 00:20:34,680 A lot of people can now do this. 293 00:20:34,680 --> 00:20:37,600 We have the information, we have the technology now. 294 00:20:37,600 --> 00:20:39,360 Astonishing. Brave new world. 295 00:20:41,520 --> 00:20:46,320 Ron's simple demonstration of al fresco biology has shown 296 00:20:46,320 --> 00:20:49,760 that with a new level of simplicity and accessibility 297 00:20:49,760 --> 00:20:54,080 you can build biological circuits that programme biological machines. 298 00:21:00,160 --> 00:21:03,480 The democratic nature of having biological parts, 299 00:21:03,480 --> 00:21:06,600 or biobricks, readily available online, 300 00:21:06,600 --> 00:21:10,360 has proved particularly appealing to one group of innovators. 301 00:21:10,360 --> 00:21:12,480 Students. 302 00:21:12,480 --> 00:21:15,880 Now, it's not unusual, in university corridors, 303 00:21:15,880 --> 00:21:18,600 to come across adverts on notice boards 304 00:21:18,600 --> 00:21:22,280 for things like cocktail societies or sports clubs. 305 00:21:22,280 --> 00:21:25,960 This one's slightly different and I want to read you a couple of lines. 306 00:21:25,960 --> 00:21:28,880 "Removal of metal ions from contaminated water." 307 00:21:28,880 --> 00:21:34,440 How about, "Repair of human tissue using bacteria"? 308 00:21:34,440 --> 00:21:38,880 Or this one says, "A biofilter for radioactive waste." 309 00:21:38,880 --> 00:21:40,720 Now, these are not clubs. 310 00:21:40,720 --> 00:21:45,240 These are entries from universities around the world for IGEM, 311 00:21:45,240 --> 00:21:49,880 the International Genetically Engineered Machine Contest. 312 00:21:49,880 --> 00:21:52,880 Basically, they're all ideas for saving the world. 313 00:21:54,440 --> 00:21:57,680 Here at the University of Cambridge the IGEM team leader, 314 00:21:57,680 --> 00:22:01,160 Cat McMurran, has asked to meet somewhere a little unusual 315 00:22:01,160 --> 00:22:03,560 to tell me about their entry. 316 00:22:08,000 --> 00:22:10,960 'The story of this particular biological machine 317 00:22:10,960 --> 00:22:13,160 'begins at a fish restaurant. 318 00:22:13,160 --> 00:22:17,400 'And with one particular dish - squid.' 319 00:22:17,400 --> 00:22:20,840 They're essentially masters of disguise. 320 00:22:20,840 --> 00:22:23,720 They have fantastic abilities to camouflage themselves 321 00:22:23,720 --> 00:22:25,920 so when they're hiding from predators 322 00:22:25,920 --> 00:22:28,160 they can very carefully match the colour 323 00:22:28,160 --> 00:22:32,000 and kind of even approximate what the texture of background there is. 324 00:22:32,000 --> 00:22:33,760 What is it about this beast 325 00:22:33,760 --> 00:22:36,120 that gives it the ability to camouflage itself? 326 00:22:36,120 --> 00:22:38,160 The really cool bit that inspired us 327 00:22:38,160 --> 00:22:43,000 is that underneath that layer of skin you can see some shiny cells. 328 00:22:43,000 --> 00:22:46,040 They're not very clear there, you can see it better in the eye. 329 00:22:46,040 --> 00:22:49,440 Oh, I see. It looks a bit like tin foil. 330 00:22:49,440 --> 00:22:51,360 Yeah, it's essentially the same. 331 00:22:51,360 --> 00:22:53,880 There's some of it leaking out of the eye. 332 00:22:53,880 --> 00:22:58,880 'The team wanted turn the camouflage system into a new biobrick, 333 00:22:58,880 --> 00:23:03,240 'so a whole new range of biological machines could use the colour change 334 00:23:03,240 --> 00:23:05,800 'just like the squid does so effortlessly.' 335 00:23:05,800 --> 00:23:10,360 This is some images of what the squid cells look like under the microscope. 336 00:23:10,360 --> 00:23:15,800 You can really see the coloured patterns of reflectin that are formed. It's really beautiful. 337 00:23:15,800 --> 00:23:17,920 It's kind of psychedelic. 338 00:23:17,920 --> 00:23:21,800 'Reflectin is the protein that makes this spectacle possible.' 339 00:23:22,800 --> 00:23:25,360 'The team ordered a series of biobricks online 340 00:23:25,360 --> 00:23:28,040 'and used them to build a biological circuit 341 00:23:28,040 --> 00:23:32,400 'that could make the same protein that the squid does.' 342 00:23:32,400 --> 00:23:34,720 So does it work? It does and I can prove it. 343 00:23:34,720 --> 00:23:38,480 So we have the purified reflectin that we made using this circuit, 344 00:23:38,480 --> 00:23:43,600 and we've taken and spun it onto, well, a little disc of silicon, 345 00:23:43,600 --> 00:23:47,120 so you can see the iridescent patterns on it as I move it. 346 00:23:47,120 --> 00:23:51,400 Looks like a drop of oil. But what's really cool about it is if you breathe on it. 347 00:23:51,400 --> 00:23:53,840 What, just breathe on it? Yes. Right. 348 00:23:55,280 --> 00:24:00,160 Oh, cool! So that's the squid protein reacting to my breath? 349 00:24:00,160 --> 00:24:05,600 Yeah, it's the humidity in the air you're breathing out that's making the structure of the protein change. 350 00:24:05,600 --> 00:24:07,920 You're very, very casual about this 351 00:24:07,920 --> 00:24:11,360 but we've gone from a squid in a restaurant that can change colour, 352 00:24:11,360 --> 00:24:15,440 even though it was dead, to getting that synthesised in a cell factory 353 00:24:15,440 --> 00:24:17,640 via the internet, onto a plate 354 00:24:17,640 --> 00:24:20,800 that can change colour when I breathe on it. 355 00:24:20,800 --> 00:24:22,560 In a summer, yeah. 356 00:24:22,560 --> 00:24:23,840 In a summer. 357 00:24:23,840 --> 00:24:26,680 It's almost annoying, to hear you say that, 358 00:24:26,680 --> 00:24:29,360 cos the prospect of me doing that 359 00:24:29,360 --> 00:24:31,400 five years ago, ten years ago in the lab 360 00:24:31,400 --> 00:24:35,920 would have taken, you know, hundreds of thousands of pounds 361 00:24:35,920 --> 00:24:41,320 and years, but you can knock that out in a summer. 362 00:24:41,320 --> 00:24:43,480 It's the beauty of synthetic biology 363 00:24:43,480 --> 00:24:45,520 is that we don't have to go through... 364 00:24:45,520 --> 00:24:48,120 Quite a lot of the hard work has been done for us. 365 00:24:48,120 --> 00:24:52,440 The work we've done this summer has now been put back into the registry 366 00:24:52,440 --> 00:24:54,760 so all the parts for making biobricks 367 00:24:54,760 --> 00:24:57,360 are now something that anyone next year, 368 00:24:57,360 --> 00:24:59,280 or a research lab right now, can e-mail 369 00:24:59,280 --> 00:25:00,960 and ask for the DNA to be sent out, 370 00:25:00,960 --> 00:25:03,320 and then they can start working on reflectin 371 00:25:03,320 --> 00:25:05,360 and that's what's really exciting 372 00:25:05,360 --> 00:25:07,040 about the open-source ideal, 373 00:25:07,040 --> 00:25:09,520 is that now it's out there, anyone can use it. 374 00:25:10,840 --> 00:25:14,320 In a squid, this is a survival mechanism, 375 00:25:14,320 --> 00:25:18,080 but Cat and her team have succeeded in turning it into a component 376 00:25:18,080 --> 00:25:21,960 that future scientists can use to do anything they want with. 377 00:25:21,960 --> 00:25:25,360 They're already thinking about sending 378 00:25:25,360 --> 00:25:29,160 tools like these into water supplies to detect pollutants 379 00:25:29,160 --> 00:25:32,400 and then change colour just like the squid does. 380 00:25:34,600 --> 00:25:39,680 It's an astonishing idea that life can be programmed like a machine 381 00:25:39,680 --> 00:25:45,360 and that the components can be simply ordered online from a standardised tool kit, 382 00:25:45,360 --> 00:25:48,600 and this means that engineers and computer scientists 383 00:25:48,600 --> 00:25:51,840 and mathematicians can come together with biologists. 384 00:25:51,840 --> 00:25:57,080 This is a totally new way of doing science, and it's happening now. 385 00:26:02,360 --> 00:26:08,720 You might think that harnessing the full power of synthetic biology was just out of reach. 386 00:26:12,520 --> 00:26:16,280 Well, that's not the way they see it here in California. 387 00:26:16,280 --> 00:26:20,400 In a sense, they're taking this idea of playing God 388 00:26:20,400 --> 00:26:26,240 and turning it into a business, potentially a rather lucrative one. 389 00:26:26,240 --> 00:26:30,080 This is the other end of synthetic biology. 390 00:26:30,080 --> 00:26:32,360 However you feel about big corporations, 391 00:26:32,360 --> 00:26:37,280 they have access to the kind of cash that makes the most exciting science possible. 392 00:26:41,160 --> 00:26:46,160 This is Amyris, one of the world's biggest synthetic biology operations. 393 00:26:49,160 --> 00:26:55,520 Their aim is simple - to develop technology that might just change the world. 394 00:26:58,560 --> 00:27:01,960 And Dr Jack Newman is leading the project here. 395 00:27:01,960 --> 00:27:05,120 Right, so this looks very familiar to me, molecular biology lab, 396 00:27:05,120 --> 00:27:09,040 been in a few labs like this where genetics happen. What's going on? 397 00:27:09,040 --> 00:27:14,120 Well, you see here, it's a lot of dedicated talented folks 398 00:27:14,120 --> 00:27:18,040 that know a lot about what goes on inside yeast. 399 00:27:18,040 --> 00:27:20,800 What we're doing is reprogramming that yeast 400 00:27:20,800 --> 00:27:23,920 to meet the petroleum needs of the world. 401 00:27:23,920 --> 00:27:28,280 This isn't tinkering with biological circuits, 402 00:27:28,280 --> 00:27:31,440 this is synthetic biology at full tilt. 403 00:27:31,440 --> 00:27:33,600 Petroleum fuels our world, 404 00:27:33,600 --> 00:27:38,040 we have tremendous energy need both in the US, in Europe, in Asia 405 00:27:38,040 --> 00:27:42,600 and here we're coming up with new solutions for meeting that energy or fuel need. 406 00:27:42,600 --> 00:27:46,960 By producing it using cells. That's right. 407 00:27:46,960 --> 00:27:51,280 And you can do that? Absolutely, that's what I'm going to show you. 408 00:27:55,160 --> 00:27:59,840 This is synthetic biology on an industrial scale. 409 00:28:02,240 --> 00:28:05,080 Scientists and robots working together. 410 00:28:05,080 --> 00:28:09,040 Their aim, to reprogramme old-fashioned brewers' yeast, 411 00:28:09,040 --> 00:28:15,920 by re-engineering the cell, so that rather than producing alcohol, it now produces diesel. 412 00:28:15,920 --> 00:28:20,000 What you're doing, in terms of making this biological machine, 413 00:28:20,000 --> 00:28:25,560 is getting it to do something that nothing in nature has ever done before. 414 00:28:25,560 --> 00:28:29,160 Not quite nothing, actually, so the molecule farnesene, 415 00:28:29,160 --> 00:28:34,680 which is the root of our diesel, is actually the same oil that coats the outside of apples. 416 00:28:34,680 --> 00:28:40,560 It's the oil that nature uses to repel the water off of apples. It also happens to be in diesel fuel. 417 00:28:42,000 --> 00:28:46,200 Kick-starting this fuel factory couldn't be easier. 418 00:28:46,200 --> 00:28:49,080 Grab a toothpick, get a little bit of yeast, 419 00:28:49,080 --> 00:28:54,800 and this is a 96 well plate, which is 96 little fermenters basically filled with sugar water. 420 00:28:54,800 --> 00:28:59,320 Put some yeast in there, it'll start making that sugar into diesel. 421 00:28:59,320 --> 00:29:01,840 Give it a shot. 422 00:29:01,840 --> 00:29:06,720 I remember this sort of laborious work from work from my days in the lab. 423 00:29:06,720 --> 00:29:10,040 You've got a bunch of toothpicks there, why don't you do the next 100? 424 00:29:10,040 --> 00:29:12,800 Um, I'm OK with that, thanks. Here's another way to do it. 425 00:29:12,800 --> 00:29:20,120 What you see there is about 10,000 yeast and what the machine has done is image that with the camera, 426 00:29:20,120 --> 00:29:24,840 it's taken a picture of that, and it knows where every colony is. 427 00:29:24,840 --> 00:29:30,280 I've done this kind of stuff, it takes about two weeks, and you're saying that this can do...how many? 428 00:29:30,280 --> 00:29:33,600 Just did 100 in the time it took you to do one. 429 00:29:34,680 --> 00:29:38,320 The speed is phenomenal! 430 00:29:38,320 --> 00:29:44,600 The core idea is that oil, which gets made from biological organisms, 431 00:29:44,600 --> 00:29:49,920 takes hundreds of thousands of years to produce a barrel... That's right. 432 00:29:49,920 --> 00:29:51,760 And this process, using yeast... 433 00:29:51,760 --> 00:29:53,200 Can take a day. 434 00:30:00,760 --> 00:30:04,920 All they need is some basic old-school lab equipment, 435 00:30:04,920 --> 00:30:10,640 and with it, I can see exactly what this new school of science is all about. 436 00:30:13,680 --> 00:30:17,360 Now, what are we seeing here? 437 00:30:17,360 --> 00:30:22,440 Here's one where you can see actually the farnesene on the inside, 438 00:30:22,440 --> 00:30:25,280 see that bright little droplet? 439 00:30:25,280 --> 00:30:27,680 So they just produce the diesel inside the cell 440 00:30:27,680 --> 00:30:29,480 and then it just secretes out? 441 00:30:29,480 --> 00:30:31,480 Just comes out in little droplets 442 00:30:31,480 --> 00:30:34,560 and those little droplets come together the same way sort of 443 00:30:34,560 --> 00:30:38,080 when salad dressing is separating, the oil goes to the top. 444 00:30:38,080 --> 00:30:41,960 So if I pull focus from the bottom upwards then I can see the cells. 445 00:30:41,960 --> 00:30:45,680 The cells will be on the bottom because they're heavy. 446 00:30:45,680 --> 00:30:49,960 And if I keep going then, bing, you get the oil. 447 00:30:49,960 --> 00:30:52,800 Yep, and the oil'll be at the top because it's lighter, 448 00:30:52,800 --> 00:30:55,000 you know, oil rises to the top. 449 00:30:55,000 --> 00:30:57,040 Crikey, that's amazing. 450 00:30:57,040 --> 00:31:01,640 Scale this up, and you're on your way to having an industrial operation. 451 00:31:01,640 --> 00:31:03,240 This is the pilot plant, 452 00:31:03,240 --> 00:31:06,600 this is where we take what you saw at that small scale 453 00:31:06,600 --> 00:31:08,720 and take it up to the next level. 454 00:31:08,720 --> 00:31:10,360 Wow! 455 00:31:10,360 --> 00:31:13,680 Inside these tanks, the same process is happening 456 00:31:13,680 --> 00:31:15,600 that I saw under the microscope, 457 00:31:15,600 --> 00:31:17,840 except instead of it being on a slide, 458 00:31:17,840 --> 00:31:20,800 it's in these massive vats. 459 00:31:22,080 --> 00:31:28,600 And at the end of this production line is the simplest process of all, separation. 460 00:31:37,280 --> 00:31:41,040 There goes the yeast and the nasty bit... 461 00:31:41,040 --> 00:31:43,080 here comes the fuel. 462 00:31:43,080 --> 00:31:46,440 That's it? That's diesel. That's diesel right there. 463 00:31:46,440 --> 00:31:51,520 That's just waste on that side? That's yeast and water, diesel on this side. 464 00:31:51,520 --> 00:31:55,560 Do you think this is going to replace oil out of the ground, fossil fuels? 465 00:31:55,560 --> 00:31:58,600 I'll be excited about a billion litres. A billion litres? Yeah. 466 00:31:58,600 --> 00:32:01,520 So how long is it going to be 467 00:32:01,520 --> 00:32:06,760 before you can scale this already pretty impressive set-up to a billion litres? 468 00:32:06,760 --> 00:32:09,640 So, we're already manufacturing on three continents, 469 00:32:09,640 --> 00:32:12,240 we're in South America, North America and Europe, 470 00:32:12,240 --> 00:32:16,400 and have two more major facilities under construction. 471 00:32:16,400 --> 00:32:20,920 Er, you know. We're ramping this just absolutely fast as we can. 472 00:32:29,440 --> 00:32:34,760 There are strict rules preventing synthetic cells from leaving the lab, 473 00:32:34,760 --> 00:32:37,960 but the things they make, like the fuel, can. 474 00:32:37,960 --> 00:32:42,600 It is still diesel, though, and still produces CO2 emissions, 475 00:32:42,600 --> 00:32:46,080 so this car, fuelled by synethic biology, 476 00:32:46,080 --> 00:32:50,240 is a symbol of the power this technology offers. 477 00:32:50,240 --> 00:32:53,480 And the questions it raises for all of us. 478 00:32:56,280 --> 00:32:59,560 Where should we draw the line between what synthetic biology 479 00:32:59,560 --> 00:33:04,160 might be capable of doing and what we think is safe or desirable? 480 00:33:05,920 --> 00:33:10,120 The closer you look, the more it appears to be an uneasy bargain. 481 00:33:26,880 --> 00:33:31,400 Now there's a question we have to address before we go too far. 482 00:33:31,400 --> 00:33:35,400 Should synthetic biology be allowed out of the lab at all? 483 00:33:35,400 --> 00:33:37,800 Now this is a legitimate question, 484 00:33:37,800 --> 00:33:43,560 albeit one fuelled by Hollywood, who imagine that synthetic lifeforms can escape from the lab 485 00:33:43,560 --> 00:33:47,360 and go down drains and crawl up into your cappuccino, 486 00:33:47,360 --> 00:33:50,440 but how real is that threat? 487 00:33:50,440 --> 00:33:55,080 Leading scientists in synthetic biology have called for added measures 488 00:33:55,080 --> 00:34:00,920 to prevent the accidental release of synthetic organisms into the wild. 489 00:34:00,920 --> 00:34:03,160 So it seems that there is a contradiction here. 490 00:34:03,160 --> 00:34:07,800 On the one hand, synthetic lifeforms should be contained within the lab, 491 00:34:07,800 --> 00:34:14,400 and on the other they should be out in the world, actually doing stuff for our benefit. 492 00:34:17,560 --> 00:34:21,280 Whether out in the world, or in the lab, the key is that the scientists 493 00:34:21,280 --> 00:34:23,800 have control over the life-forms they create, 494 00:34:23,800 --> 00:34:27,480 and the principles behind that are simple. 495 00:34:29,160 --> 00:34:34,640 Now scientists design synthetic cells, so they have an inbuilt safety mechanism, 496 00:34:34,640 --> 00:34:39,200 and they get called kill switches, which is slightly overly dramatic. 497 00:34:39,200 --> 00:34:42,200 But I can show you how they work using just a box of matches. 498 00:34:43,880 --> 00:34:46,880 In the olden days, matches could be struck on any surface. 499 00:34:46,880 --> 00:34:51,880 But then safety conscious matchmakers introduced a feature which meant they could only ignite 500 00:34:51,880 --> 00:34:55,720 in very precisely controlled conditions - that is the side of the box. 501 00:34:57,360 --> 00:34:59,240 And that is the safety match. 502 00:35:00,280 --> 00:35:02,600 Now kill switches work in much the same way. 503 00:35:02,600 --> 00:35:08,680 The synthetic cells can only grow in very precisely controlled conditions. 504 00:35:08,680 --> 00:35:12,240 On top of that, once they are alive, they have to be continually fed, 505 00:35:12,240 --> 00:35:16,640 otherwise, just like the flame, they won't survive. 506 00:35:16,640 --> 00:35:22,800 Pretty foolproof, except safety measures are never 100% effective. 507 00:35:24,080 --> 00:35:29,480 In the right circumstances, even a safety match will still ignite. 508 00:35:31,280 --> 00:35:34,080 We know life does tend to find a way. 509 00:35:38,520 --> 00:35:43,280 Synthetic biology is about creating and manipulating lifeforms. 510 00:35:43,280 --> 00:35:46,920 Things that grow, feed and reproduce. 511 00:35:51,240 --> 00:35:53,080 This is a high stakes game. 512 00:35:53,080 --> 00:35:57,600 Scientists can have control, but there is always a level of risk. 513 00:36:16,000 --> 00:36:20,200 Jim Thomas works for a watchdog called Etcetera. 514 00:36:22,040 --> 00:36:25,480 Having called for a ban on synthetic biology in its very early days, 515 00:36:25,480 --> 00:36:29,640 the group have evolved their views, along with the technology. 516 00:36:30,920 --> 00:36:37,400 So if you initial concern was the release of synthetic organisms into the wild, 517 00:36:37,400 --> 00:36:40,840 how has that changed over the years, as the technology has developed? 518 00:36:40,840 --> 00:36:44,920 Well, we're still very concerned about the release of synthetic organisms. 519 00:36:44,920 --> 00:36:46,520 We still think that's a no-no. 520 00:36:46,520 --> 00:36:51,280 But what's become clearer to us is that the bigger issues around synthetic biology 521 00:36:51,280 --> 00:36:55,960 are how it's turning into an industry, and what industry is doing with that technology. 522 00:36:55,960 --> 00:36:59,960 Because the synthetic organisms that are going to be used have to eat something. 523 00:36:59,960 --> 00:37:04,800 What they have to eat is sugar - biomass. It's this stuff, it's the living world, 524 00:37:04,800 --> 00:37:10,560 And you have an industry whose basic approach is to take living biomass, 525 00:37:10,560 --> 00:37:14,800 liquidate it, feed it to synthetic organisms in order to create the plastics 526 00:37:14,800 --> 00:37:17,640 and the fuels that previously were made from petroleum, 527 00:37:17,640 --> 00:37:21,640 and as an industrial model that's a terrible industrial model. 528 00:37:22,960 --> 00:37:26,560 Living things become part of these biological machines, 529 00:37:26,560 --> 00:37:29,600 not just as components in the circuit, but as a feedstock. 530 00:37:31,920 --> 00:37:36,800 Large companies are buying up bits of land so that they can grow sugarcane or eucaplypus, 531 00:37:36,800 --> 00:37:43,120 so that they can feed those to vats of what will ultimately be synthetic microbes to make fuels. 532 00:37:43,120 --> 00:37:48,720 As the global population soars, Jim's concern is that feeding these synthetic lifeforms 533 00:37:48,720 --> 00:37:55,320 could ultimately threaten the livelihood of some of the poorest people in the world. 534 00:38:05,440 --> 00:38:08,920 Synthetic biology has become a technological force, 535 00:38:08,920 --> 00:38:13,440 and questions about how it should used and controlled are unavoidable. 536 00:38:16,680 --> 00:38:19,400 But there's a darker side to consider. 537 00:38:19,400 --> 00:38:24,040 What if this technology was used to intentionally do harm? 538 00:38:24,040 --> 00:38:25,840 Through bio-terrorism. 539 00:38:33,480 --> 00:38:34,520 Sunnyvale. 540 00:38:36,720 --> 00:38:39,080 California. 541 00:38:44,040 --> 00:38:48,960 A residential street, like so many others across America. 542 00:38:53,480 --> 00:38:58,120 Dr Rob Carlson is an advisor to the UN and FBI, 543 00:38:58,120 --> 00:39:04,640 and they ask his advice on the threats that could come from this field. 544 00:39:04,640 --> 00:39:08,000 He knows his way around the subculture of synthetic biology. 545 00:39:12,840 --> 00:39:17,240 He's brought me here, to introduce me to some people he knows. 546 00:39:22,520 --> 00:39:29,040 Rob, we are a long way from high-tech labs and universities. What are we doing here? 547 00:39:29,040 --> 00:39:33,920 Well, biotechnology has become less expensive and more accessible over the last 20 years, 548 00:39:33,920 --> 00:39:36,600 especially in the last 10 years. 549 00:39:36,600 --> 00:39:40,160 You can set up a lab in a kitchen or a garage or a store front anywhere around here. 550 00:39:40,160 --> 00:39:43,520 So you're saying that in some garage over there, in the middle of suburbia, 551 00:39:43,520 --> 00:39:46,000 some kid could be doing real synthetic biology. 552 00:39:46,000 --> 00:39:47,480 In principle yeah. 553 00:39:47,480 --> 00:39:52,480 I've seen that scientists can order parts they want, wherever they can get online. 554 00:39:52,480 --> 00:39:57,080 So what would be available to someone who wanted to do harm? 555 00:39:57,080 --> 00:40:01,240 So there are many parts in the registry. You can use them for making many different things. 556 00:40:01,240 --> 00:40:03,160 Making biofuels, making vaccines. 557 00:40:03,160 --> 00:40:07,560 There are some parts in here that look like they might have nefarious use, 558 00:40:07,560 --> 00:40:11,640 so there are some viral vectors that could be used to infect human cells with some things. 559 00:40:11,640 --> 00:40:14,080 They're very difficult to use. 560 00:40:14,080 --> 00:40:18,080 They're more of an art than a bit of technology that anybody can make use of. 561 00:40:18,080 --> 00:40:22,560 Now I'm going to push you on this, because you say the parts are individually innocuous, 562 00:40:22,560 --> 00:40:29,480 but if I wanted to build a nailbomb, I could go to any hardware store and get all of the ingredients. 563 00:40:29,480 --> 00:40:32,680 Individually, they're not for making a bomb, but you put them together in the right way 564 00:40:32,680 --> 00:40:34,360 and you've got something lethal. 565 00:40:34,360 --> 00:40:37,000 Surely you could say the same thing about the parts? 566 00:40:37,000 --> 00:40:41,680 There aren't any parts in the biobrick registry that I'm aware of that can be used to cause any harm. 567 00:40:41,680 --> 00:40:45,760 But a nail is for putting pieces of wood together, it's not for killing people. 568 00:40:45,760 --> 00:40:50,320 I understand that, but there aren't any pieces that look even like a nail in the biobricks registry, 569 00:40:50,320 --> 00:40:54,360 which is not to say that you can't make those parts, it's just they're not in the registry. 570 00:40:54,360 --> 00:40:58,320 Over time we'll have many more parts that become available that are so useful, 571 00:40:58,320 --> 00:41:01,040 but I think you've brought up an interesting point, 572 00:41:01,040 --> 00:41:04,680 which is given the difficulty in building anything nefarious, 573 00:41:04,680 --> 00:41:07,240 using biological parts right now, in this way we're discussing, 574 00:41:07,240 --> 00:41:10,440 it's a lot easier to just go build a nailbomb if you want to cause a problem. 575 00:41:10,440 --> 00:41:16,640 It's easier to fixate on the threat than it is to embrace the opportunity from these new technologies. 576 00:41:16,640 --> 00:41:21,040 Those opportunities are all around us. We can go and have a look just a couple of blocks away. 577 00:41:32,640 --> 00:41:37,280 So the idea here is you pay a monthly fee, just like you're going to a gym, 578 00:41:37,280 --> 00:41:39,880 and instead you're doing biology here. 579 00:41:43,080 --> 00:41:46,280 This is DIY biology. 580 00:41:46,280 --> 00:41:51,440 And it's already become a movement, known as Biohacking. 581 00:41:58,600 --> 00:42:00,040 This is really cool. 582 00:42:01,280 --> 00:42:06,400 Really interesting this. It's like a very community-based project, 583 00:42:06,400 --> 00:42:09,120 but they're doing real experimental science, 584 00:42:09,120 --> 00:42:13,960 and the strangest thing about it is, even though there are school-age kids here, 585 00:42:13,960 --> 00:42:18,600 if you just look on the shelves, this is standard lab equipment, 586 00:42:18,600 --> 00:42:21,720 expensive equipment that you'd see in any hospital lab 587 00:42:21,720 --> 00:42:26,240 or university lab, and it's just here in this community centre. 588 00:42:28,760 --> 00:42:31,080 This is unusual. I've not seen this before. 589 00:42:38,680 --> 00:42:41,120 So some of these guys call themselves biohackers, 590 00:42:41,120 --> 00:42:43,240 which is quite a cool name but it also has a real, 591 00:42:43,240 --> 00:42:48,480 quite a negative connotation about it. How does that work? 592 00:42:48,480 --> 00:42:51,000 That depends on who you're talking to. They don't think it's negative. 593 00:42:51,000 --> 00:42:54,600 There are hackers taking things apart, putting them back together, 594 00:42:54,600 --> 00:42:57,160 whether it's computers or cars or boats. 595 00:42:57,160 --> 00:42:59,400 Hacking is part of the way new stuff gets built. 596 00:42:59,400 --> 00:43:01,520 Hacking is part of innovation. 597 00:43:04,840 --> 00:43:07,880 We piloted a class this last month 598 00:43:07,880 --> 00:43:12,040 where we took an E. coli bacteria and we brought in green fluorescent protein, 599 00:43:12,040 --> 00:43:14,600 so it basically glows in the dark. 600 00:43:14,600 --> 00:43:17,680 It's a protein from jellyfish. 601 00:43:17,680 --> 00:43:20,520 Can you show me that? You bet. 602 00:43:27,240 --> 00:43:35,240 Seeing such a powerful science in here does throw the biologist in me a bit off balance. 603 00:43:35,240 --> 00:43:39,680 What this is is a bacteria, a naturally occurring bacteria, 604 00:43:39,680 --> 00:43:45,840 that some kid in this garage space has put a gene from a jellyfish in. 605 00:43:45,840 --> 00:43:49,480 And the jellyfish kind of has a superpower of being fluorescent. 606 00:43:49,480 --> 00:43:51,000 It glows in the dark basically. 607 00:43:51,000 --> 00:43:54,080 So we borrowed that one piece and stuck in into this bacteria 608 00:43:54,080 --> 00:43:57,600 that we can grow a lot easier than we can grow a jellyfish. 609 00:43:57,600 --> 00:44:01,640 So I've done this a few years ago in the lab, 610 00:44:01,640 --> 00:44:05,040 but you've done this in a garage... Who did this? 611 00:44:05,040 --> 00:44:07,720 Rank amateurs, people who'd never picked up pipettes before, 612 00:44:07,720 --> 00:44:09,600 we trained them in about an hour. 613 00:44:09,600 --> 00:44:12,880 It wasn't a big deal, a lot of the things we got off the internet, 614 00:44:12,880 --> 00:44:15,920 a lot of things came together really easily for amateurs. 615 00:44:15,920 --> 00:44:20,560 That represents how the game has changed so significantly 616 00:44:20,560 --> 00:44:23,960 in way less than a decade. 617 00:44:23,960 --> 00:44:26,880 I mean, how long would that have taken five years ago? 618 00:44:26,880 --> 00:44:29,440 That is a game-changer, I think. 619 00:44:29,440 --> 00:44:33,720 In 2008, three scientists won a Nobel prize for doing this 620 00:44:33,720 --> 00:44:36,520 and now anyone can do it in a garage. 621 00:44:38,920 --> 00:44:40,400 You ain't seen nothin' yet. 622 00:44:40,400 --> 00:44:43,720 So, what comes next? What's the ambition? 623 00:44:43,720 --> 00:44:45,840 Well, like, I can see the day 624 00:44:45,840 --> 00:44:49,600 whenever people are growing plastics, medicine... 625 00:44:49,600 --> 00:44:53,080 You know, I think the future looks a lot less like 626 00:44:53,080 --> 00:44:56,920 a big refinery stack and a lot more like a big brewing vat. 627 00:44:57,920 --> 00:45:01,920 You know what it reminds me of? The legend of Microsoft, 628 00:45:01,920 --> 00:45:04,480 that it started in Bill Gates' garage 629 00:45:04,480 --> 00:45:07,960 where they were building computers from scratch in a garage 630 00:45:07,960 --> 00:45:11,280 and now it is this, you know, global, enormous corporation. 631 00:45:12,760 --> 00:45:16,320 Rather than being a backdrop for dark, scientific arts, 632 00:45:16,320 --> 00:45:22,040 suburbia is clearly a place where synthetic biology can flourish. 633 00:45:22,040 --> 00:45:25,160 So, from what I've seen, whether it's driven by universities, 634 00:45:25,160 --> 00:45:28,600 large corporations or even bio-hackers, 635 00:45:28,600 --> 00:45:32,040 it's clear this technology has breath-taking potential. 636 00:45:37,400 --> 00:45:40,040 The innovation offered up by this science 637 00:45:40,040 --> 00:45:42,680 is about to take us across another boundary 638 00:45:42,680 --> 00:45:43,920 Hi, how are you? 639 00:45:43,920 --> 00:45:48,080 Not just taking synthetic biology out into the world 640 00:45:48,080 --> 00:45:51,120 but putting it inside people. 641 00:45:51,120 --> 00:45:54,200 Attempting the impossible is what scientists 642 00:45:54,200 --> 00:45:57,400 at the NASA Ames research facility are pretty good at. 643 00:45:57,400 --> 00:45:59,920 Do you get blase about working here? 644 00:45:59,920 --> 00:46:02,960 This is a lifelong childhood dream of mine. 645 00:46:02,960 --> 00:46:06,680 I will come to work sometimes and I have to pinch myself. 646 00:46:11,040 --> 00:46:14,640 Dr David Loftus is a medic to the astronauts. 647 00:46:16,040 --> 00:46:20,040 He's a man with a rather unique commute into the office. 648 00:46:20,040 --> 00:46:21,840 What is that? 649 00:46:21,840 --> 00:46:26,360 That is the air intake for the world's largest wind tunnel 650 00:46:26,360 --> 00:46:31,240 it's just a fantastic structure. It's just huge. 651 00:46:31,240 --> 00:46:34,400 You can put an actual, full-sized aircraft inside. Wow. 652 00:46:37,440 --> 00:46:41,840 David is not just planning to put synthetic biology into outer space, 653 00:46:41,840 --> 00:46:45,040 but into astronauts, to help them deal with something 654 00:46:45,040 --> 00:46:48,400 that Californians often take for granted. 655 00:46:48,400 --> 00:46:51,040 The sun. 656 00:46:51,040 --> 00:46:54,200 We've got some UV radiation to deal with, 657 00:46:54,200 --> 00:46:57,200 here in our convertible, from the sun, 658 00:46:57,200 --> 00:47:01,800 but in space you've got particle radiation and high-energy radiation 659 00:47:01,800 --> 00:47:04,080 that can really be quite damaging 660 00:47:04,080 --> 00:47:06,680 and potentially fatal to the astronauts. 661 00:47:06,680 --> 00:47:09,920 What's synthetic biology going to... How is that going to help? 662 00:47:09,920 --> 00:47:12,760 We've come up with a technology that's pretty nifty 663 00:47:12,760 --> 00:47:16,480 that allows us to engineer organisms and cells, 664 00:47:16,480 --> 00:47:19,040 to make therapeutic molecules 665 00:47:19,040 --> 00:47:22,040 that can be directly released into the body. 666 00:47:22,040 --> 00:47:25,360 You're going to take engineered bacteria 667 00:47:25,360 --> 00:47:29,320 and put them into astronauts to treat them for radiation sickness? 668 00:47:29,320 --> 00:47:30,760 It seems pretty far-fetched 669 00:47:30,760 --> 00:47:33,360 but that's exactly what we've been thinking about. 670 00:47:42,680 --> 00:47:45,640 Putting synthetic biology inside people 671 00:47:45,640 --> 00:47:49,120 has never been done before. It's unknown territory. 672 00:47:50,440 --> 00:47:53,720 The key is locking the engineered bacteria away 673 00:47:53,720 --> 00:47:55,880 and safely containing them. 674 00:47:57,200 --> 00:48:00,040 And to do that, NASA is using nanotechnology 675 00:48:00,040 --> 00:48:02,480 to make something truly remarkable. 676 00:48:03,640 --> 00:48:05,120 A biocapsule. 677 00:48:10,360 --> 00:48:13,920 This is just a normal syringe needle... A normal syringe needle. 678 00:48:13,920 --> 00:48:15,920 ..and on the top, this is a mould... 679 00:48:15,920 --> 00:48:19,280 Exactly, it's a plastic mould that's porous. 680 00:48:19,280 --> 00:48:21,600 And needle goes in this liquid? 681 00:48:21,600 --> 00:48:23,640 Exactly, you just plunge it right in. 682 00:48:23,640 --> 00:48:25,680 Turn the vacuum on... All right. 683 00:48:25,680 --> 00:48:29,200 ..and you should see things happening almost right away. 684 00:48:29,200 --> 00:48:34,080 Carbon nanotubes suspended in the liquid are drawn onto the mould. 685 00:48:34,080 --> 00:48:36,400 Ha, look at that it's instantaneous! 686 00:48:36,400 --> 00:48:39,480 The result? A biocapsule. 687 00:48:39,480 --> 00:48:41,360 It's gone black. 688 00:48:45,120 --> 00:48:49,480 Turn the vacuum off and you can pull it out of the solution. 689 00:48:49,480 --> 00:48:51,320 Well, that was not very hard. 690 00:48:51,320 --> 00:48:53,560 And let it dry, it's very quick, 691 00:48:53,560 --> 00:48:56,800 and you can just take it off of the tubing 692 00:48:56,800 --> 00:48:58,600 and there's the capsule. 693 00:48:58,600 --> 00:49:00,680 That's it, I've just made a biocapsule. 694 00:49:00,680 --> 00:49:03,440 You've just made a biocapsule. 695 00:49:03,440 --> 00:49:07,360 It may not look like much, but the genius of this biocapsule 696 00:49:07,360 --> 00:49:10,960 comes by way of the tiny molecules that make up its structure, 697 00:49:10,960 --> 00:49:13,360 a substance that the body won't reject. 698 00:49:13,360 --> 00:49:15,520 Carbon nanotubes. 699 00:49:15,520 --> 00:49:18,200 if we zoom in at higher power, 700 00:49:18,200 --> 00:49:21,240 we start to appreciate the pores of this structure. Wow! 701 00:49:21,240 --> 00:49:24,360 You can actually see the bundles of carbon nanotubes 702 00:49:24,360 --> 00:49:26,880 forming this meshwork across the surface. 703 00:49:26,880 --> 00:49:30,760 The holes in the mesh are too small for the synthetic cells to escape, 704 00:49:30,760 --> 00:49:34,480 but just the right size for the smaller therapeutic molecules 705 00:49:34,480 --> 00:49:37,560 to leave the capsule and enter the body. 706 00:49:37,560 --> 00:49:39,160 We'll get a sense for how it works 707 00:49:39,160 --> 00:49:41,320 once it's actually implanted into a human, 708 00:49:41,320 --> 00:49:43,480 so this is a schematic representation 709 00:49:43,480 --> 00:49:47,440 of how we might implant the capsule under the skin and then the capsule 710 00:49:47,440 --> 00:49:50,960 could potentially respond to the radiation exposure 711 00:49:50,960 --> 00:49:54,200 and once it responds it will release the therapeutic molecule 712 00:49:54,200 --> 00:49:58,040 or the protective molecule altering the physiology of the astronaut 713 00:49:58,040 --> 00:49:59,800 and protecting that astronaut 714 00:49:59,800 --> 00:50:02,080 from whatever threat exposure has happened. 715 00:50:02,080 --> 00:50:05,200 You can think of this as a completely novel 716 00:50:05,200 --> 00:50:06,920 drug delivery system. 717 00:50:06,920 --> 00:50:10,440 So, it's triggered by the thing that it's trying to prevent. 718 00:50:10,440 --> 00:50:13,280 Exactly. That's the beauty of the system. It's so elegant. 719 00:50:13,280 --> 00:50:14,920 We really think it is. 720 00:50:14,920 --> 00:50:20,920 So, how close are you to getting it actually into a human test? 721 00:50:20,920 --> 00:50:24,120 I think it's going to be ready in about two to five years. 722 00:50:24,120 --> 00:50:27,280 So, just around the corner? Just around the corner. 723 00:50:28,480 --> 00:50:32,600 NASA are famous for their giant feats of machine engineering 724 00:50:32,600 --> 00:50:35,920 but now they can apply their prowess at a microscopic level, 725 00:50:35,920 --> 00:50:39,040 making biological machines. 726 00:50:39,040 --> 00:50:42,280 It's the ground floor of a defining technology 727 00:50:42,280 --> 00:50:46,720 and it might not only be for astronauts but every one of us. 728 00:50:46,720 --> 00:50:49,040 Of all the weird things that I've seen, 729 00:50:49,040 --> 00:50:52,160 I think this one is the one that impresses me the most, 730 00:50:52,160 --> 00:50:54,520 because it's so real, 731 00:50:54,520 --> 00:50:58,680 this means that a whole new range of biological machines 732 00:50:58,680 --> 00:51:00,920 can be designed in the knowledge 733 00:51:00,920 --> 00:51:05,120 that they can sit inside of us, actually under our skin. 734 00:51:16,120 --> 00:51:19,360 As this technology is pushed further and further, 735 00:51:19,360 --> 00:51:24,120 the line between what's intriguing and unsettling becomes even finer, 736 00:51:24,120 --> 00:51:27,600 and the idea of playing God seems to draw closer. 737 00:51:29,040 --> 00:51:32,640 But there's one corner that's left to turn. 738 00:51:32,640 --> 00:51:35,280 Being able to programme biological machines 739 00:51:35,280 --> 00:51:37,800 by having control of microbes is one thing. 740 00:51:38,840 --> 00:51:43,840 But what if we took that control to more complex life forms? 741 00:51:43,840 --> 00:51:47,600 What about if it was much more personal, 742 00:51:47,600 --> 00:51:52,960 if we could actually control what's in our bodies or even in here? 743 00:51:52,960 --> 00:51:55,520 Well, that would take us to a whole new level. 744 00:52:00,680 --> 00:52:03,960 A level that takes the principles of synthetic biology 745 00:52:03,960 --> 00:52:06,440 to the most precious part of our anatomy. 746 00:52:10,560 --> 00:52:15,920 To the root of art, culture and the full spectrum of our emotions. 747 00:52:15,920 --> 00:52:17,600 The brain. 748 00:52:21,600 --> 00:52:24,400 This is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 749 00:52:24,400 --> 00:52:26,760 a place where people who think differently 750 00:52:26,760 --> 00:52:28,880 can explore the limits of their field. 751 00:52:32,920 --> 00:52:35,600 Professor Ed Boyden began his academic career here 752 00:52:35,600 --> 00:52:39,680 almost two decades ago at just 15 years of age, 753 00:52:39,680 --> 00:52:44,680 today he's driving a totally new field called Synthetic Neurobiology. 754 00:52:46,600 --> 00:52:50,440 Ed, this looks like an electronics lab to me, not a biology lab, 755 00:52:50,440 --> 00:52:52,080 so how did you get here? 756 00:52:52,080 --> 00:52:55,400 Well, I actually started out my education as an electrical engineer, 757 00:52:55,400 --> 00:52:58,240 trying to build new kinds of computer and to figure out 758 00:52:58,240 --> 00:53:01,120 how to repair and alter systems such as submarines 759 00:53:01,120 --> 00:53:03,920 and quantum computers and other things like that, 760 00:53:03,920 --> 00:53:06,720 and I got really interested in trying to engineer 761 00:53:06,720 --> 00:53:08,960 the most complex computer there is, the brain. 762 00:53:08,960 --> 00:53:11,840 Turns out the brain uses the same kinds of electrical pulses 763 00:53:11,840 --> 00:53:14,040 to compute and communicate that computers do, 764 00:53:14,040 --> 00:53:17,160 and if we could try to control those elements, that would allow us 765 00:53:17,160 --> 00:53:20,480 to enter information into them, like you can enter information 766 00:53:20,480 --> 00:53:23,120 into a computer circuit. So, what we're trying to do now 767 00:53:23,120 --> 00:53:26,040 is use these illuminators, these lasers, to do exactly that. 768 00:53:26,040 --> 00:53:27,920 But let me show you how it works, first. 769 00:53:31,800 --> 00:53:34,480 What they've done here is taken a light source 770 00:53:34,480 --> 00:53:38,240 and connected it directly into the mouse's brain. 771 00:53:38,240 --> 00:53:40,440 Every time the mouse goes to this point 772 00:53:40,440 --> 00:53:42,480 a pulse of light is being delivered 773 00:53:42,480 --> 00:53:44,720 to a very specific point in the brain. 774 00:53:44,720 --> 00:53:48,400 That point is actually a place deep in the brain 775 00:53:48,400 --> 00:53:51,520 where neurons that mediate reward and pleasure, and so on, 776 00:53:51,520 --> 00:53:54,280 are thought to be residing. So, basically, the mouse 777 00:53:54,280 --> 00:53:57,200 is going to this little portal and putting its nose in there. 778 00:53:57,200 --> 00:53:59,520 Every time it does that, he gets a pulse of light, 779 00:53:59,520 --> 00:54:01,320 and he's, sort of, working for light. 780 00:54:01,320 --> 00:54:04,120 This other portal, the mouse doesn't get anything, 781 00:54:04,120 --> 00:54:05,880 so he prefers to go to that spot. 782 00:54:05,880 --> 00:54:08,920 But I still don't understand how you actually make the brain 783 00:54:08,920 --> 00:54:12,440 sensitive to light, because it's not, it's inside our dark skulls. 784 00:54:12,440 --> 00:54:15,720 Well, neurons in the brain don't normally respond to light. 785 00:54:15,720 --> 00:54:18,160 What we have to do is to find molecules that do 786 00:54:18,160 --> 00:54:20,240 and put them into the neurons. 787 00:54:20,240 --> 00:54:23,400 And it turns out that species out in the wild like this green algae 788 00:54:23,400 --> 00:54:25,960 have to sense light in order to photosynthesize. 789 00:54:25,960 --> 00:54:29,080 This species of algae has an eye spot that senses light 790 00:54:29,080 --> 00:54:32,800 and converts light into electricity. That's how it's able to navigate, 791 00:54:32,800 --> 00:54:34,640 by turning these little flagellas 792 00:54:34,640 --> 00:54:37,000 so it can steer it toward the surface of pond. 793 00:54:37,000 --> 00:54:39,000 If you zoom in on this little eye spot, 794 00:54:39,000 --> 00:54:41,960 you'll find proteins that, when they are hit by light, 795 00:54:41,960 --> 00:54:44,760 will actually generate little electrical pulses 796 00:54:44,760 --> 00:54:49,520 and that's exactly what we need if we want to control a neuron. 797 00:54:49,520 --> 00:54:53,520 Ed has programmed a virus to travel to specific neurons in the brain 798 00:54:53,520 --> 00:54:55,920 and deposit the light sensitive molecule, 799 00:54:55,920 --> 00:54:59,680 tiling the surface of the brain cells like solar panels. 800 00:55:01,440 --> 00:55:05,160 This turns those specific neurons, and only those neurons, 801 00:55:05,160 --> 00:55:09,200 into on/off switches activated by light. 802 00:55:09,200 --> 00:55:11,960 So, this is the, sort of, synthetic biology angle to it, 803 00:55:11,960 --> 00:55:16,160 you're taking algae and putting it into the mouse, 804 00:55:16,160 --> 00:55:19,520 but it's, sort of, another level above this because you're also 805 00:55:19,520 --> 00:55:23,040 controlling that by using an electrical circuit. 806 00:55:23,040 --> 00:55:26,280 Effectively, this is plugged into the mouse's brain 807 00:55:26,280 --> 00:55:30,560 and turning it on, which makes this mouse, effectively, a cyborg. 808 00:55:30,560 --> 00:55:34,000 Absolutely. What we're trying to do is deliver information to the brain 809 00:55:34,000 --> 00:55:36,040 so we can control its natural processing. 810 00:55:36,040 --> 00:55:38,080 To do that, we've been working on ways 811 00:55:38,080 --> 00:55:40,200 to go beyond just one light source. 812 00:55:40,200 --> 00:55:43,800 For example, now we can beam light all over the brain in a 3D pattern, 813 00:55:43,800 --> 00:55:47,360 turning on and off the circuits that are involved with emotions, 814 00:55:47,360 --> 00:55:49,720 decision making, sensations and actions. 815 00:55:49,720 --> 00:55:53,720 We're in the matrix here, aren't we? Is this not exactly the way 816 00:55:53,720 --> 00:55:56,320 brain control is going to be in the future? 817 00:55:56,320 --> 00:56:00,040 I think science fiction can be really inspiring for new technologies. 818 00:56:00,040 --> 00:56:03,400 I mean, it sounds potentially terrifying. 819 00:56:03,400 --> 00:56:06,600 Well, the ability to control brain circuits with precision 820 00:56:06,600 --> 00:56:10,240 we're regarding as a scientific tool to allow us to understand brain 821 00:56:10,240 --> 00:56:11,800 and also as a medical prototype. 822 00:56:11,800 --> 00:56:14,920 If you look at the world, there's something like a billion people 823 00:56:14,920 --> 00:56:17,400 who have some kind of brain disorder and many of them 824 00:56:17,400 --> 00:56:19,520 like Alzheimer's and multiple sclerosis, 825 00:56:19,520 --> 00:56:21,280 stroke, traumatic brain injury, 826 00:56:21,280 --> 00:56:23,760 there's basically no treatment for those things. 827 00:56:23,760 --> 00:56:26,280 The 20th century was all about pharmacology, right? 828 00:56:26,280 --> 00:56:29,200 Drugs for treating epilepsy, Parkinson's disease and so on, 829 00:56:29,200 --> 00:56:31,840 but the problem is, if you bathe the brain in a substance 830 00:56:31,840 --> 00:56:35,280 you're going to affect normal neurons as well as neurons you want to fix, 831 00:56:35,280 --> 00:56:36,840 and that can cause side effects. 832 00:56:36,840 --> 00:56:39,280 So, imagine that we go back to example of epilepsy. 833 00:56:39,280 --> 00:56:41,920 What if we could turn off just the little piece of brain, 834 00:56:41,920 --> 00:56:43,960 just for the time of a seizure and block it? 835 00:56:43,960 --> 00:56:47,000 And therefore we won't have the side effects associated with it 836 00:56:47,000 --> 00:56:48,080 other than that time. 837 00:56:48,080 --> 00:56:51,400 So, what you're trying to do is hit the defective bit, ignore the rest? 838 00:56:51,400 --> 00:56:52,520 Absolutely. 839 00:56:57,400 --> 00:57:00,440 Having control over simple cells is one thing 840 00:57:00,440 --> 00:57:03,400 but introducing control into our brains? 841 00:57:03,400 --> 00:57:05,440 Well, that is something else, 842 00:57:05,440 --> 00:57:09,600 this is the absolute cutting edge, not just of the science, 843 00:57:09,600 --> 00:57:11,880 but also of the ethical debate. 844 00:57:11,880 --> 00:57:14,960 We're talking about introducing control 845 00:57:14,960 --> 00:57:17,800 into the most complex circuitry that there is, 846 00:57:17,800 --> 00:57:19,600 our own minds. 847 00:57:32,720 --> 00:57:36,200 I've seen some extraordinary things on this trip... 848 00:57:38,320 --> 00:57:41,640 All based on the idea that you can treat the natural world 849 00:57:41,640 --> 00:57:45,760 as spare parts for machines that can be rebuilt and reprogrammed. 850 00:57:48,560 --> 00:57:51,720 And the result? Entirely new lifeforms 851 00:57:51,720 --> 00:57:54,360 or biological machines that tread a line 852 00:57:54,360 --> 00:57:57,680 somewhere between controversy and opportunity. 853 00:57:59,640 --> 00:58:01,000 And so, it's easy to see 854 00:58:01,000 --> 00:58:04,040 why some people might think of it as playing God. 855 00:58:08,080 --> 00:58:10,680 What's really struck me about all of this, 856 00:58:10,680 --> 00:58:15,120 whether you're in a small community garage or a colossal corporate lab, 857 00:58:15,120 --> 00:58:18,480 is the number of people who have access to this technology 858 00:58:18,480 --> 00:58:22,520 and the speed at which it's happened has been breath-taking. 859 00:58:22,520 --> 00:58:25,360 Now, whatever you think of the uneasy bargain 860 00:58:25,360 --> 00:58:29,600 that surrounds synthetic biology, one thing is absolutely clear. 861 00:58:29,600 --> 00:58:31,520 We have created for ourselves 862 00:58:31,520 --> 00:58:35,160 unprecedented power over life itself.