full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Lee Cronin: Making matter come alive

Unscramble the Blue Letters


In my own laboratory, the way we're trying to create inorganic life is by using many different reaction formats. So what we're trying to do is do rciateons — not in one flask, but in tens of flasks, and connect them together, as you can see with this flow sytsem, all these pipes. We can do it microfluidically, we can do it lhaghrlpiilatocy, we can do it in a 3D printer, we can do it in droplets for colleagues. And the key thing is to have lots of cmopelx chiretsmy just bubbling away. But that's probably going to end in flriaue, so we need to be a bit more focused.

And the answer, of course, lies with mice. This is how I rbememer what I need as a chemist. I say, "Well I want molecules." But I need a metabolism, I need some energy. I need some iaoiotnmrfn, and I need a container. Because if I want evolution, I need containers to compete. So if you have a container, it's like getting in your car. "This is my car, and I'm going to drive around and show off my car." And I imagine you have a similar thing in cellular bogioly with the emergence of life. So these things together give us evolution, perhaps. And the way to test it in the laboratory is to make it minimal.

Open Cloze


In my own laboratory, the way we're trying to create inorganic life is by using many different reaction formats. So what we're trying to do is do _________ — not in one flask, but in tens of flasks, and connect them together, as you can see with this flow ______, all these pipes. We can do it microfluidically, we can do it ________________, we can do it in a 3D printer, we can do it in droplets for colleagues. And the key thing is to have lots of _______ _________ just bubbling away. But that's probably going to end in _______, so we need to be a bit more focused.

And the answer, of course, lies with mice. This is how I ________ what I need as a chemist. I say, "Well I want molecules." But I need a metabolism, I need some energy. I need some ___________, and I need a container. Because if I want evolution, I need containers to compete. So if you have a container, it's like getting in your car. "This is my car, and I'm going to drive around and show off my car." And I imagine you have a similar thing in cellular _______ with the emergence of life. So these things together give us evolution, perhaps. And the way to test it in the laboratory is to make it minimal.

Solution


  1. system
  2. information
  3. remember
  4. lithographically
  5. biology
  6. reactions
  7. complex
  8. chemistry
  9. failure

Original Text


In my own laboratory, the way we're trying to create inorganic life is by using many different reaction formats. So what we're trying to do is do reactions — not in one flask, but in tens of flasks, and connect them together, as you can see with this flow system, all these pipes. We can do it microfluidically, we can do it lithographically, we can do it in a 3D printer, we can do it in droplets for colleagues. And the key thing is to have lots of complex chemistry just bubbling away. But that's probably going to end in failure, so we need to be a bit more focused.

And the answer, of course, lies with mice. This is how I remember what I need as a chemist. I say, "Well I want molecules." But I need a metabolism, I need some energy. I need some information, and I need a container. Because if I want evolution, I need containers to compete. So if you have a container, it's like getting in your car. "This is my car, and I'm going to drive around and show off my car." And I imagine you have a similar thing in cellular biology with the emergence of life. So these things together give us evolution, perhaps. And the way to test it in the laboratory is to make it minimal.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
billion years 4
planet earth 2
driving force 2
inorganic life 2
artificial life 2
amino acids 2
cellular biology 2


Important Words


  1. answer
  2. biology
  3. bit
  4. bubbling
  5. car
  6. cellular
  7. chemist
  8. chemistry
  9. colleagues
  10. compete
  11. complex
  12. connect
  13. container
  14. containers
  15. create
  16. drive
  17. droplets
  18. emergence
  19. energy
  20. evolution
  21. failure
  22. flask
  23. flasks
  24. flow
  25. focused
  26. formats
  27. give
  28. imagine
  29. information
  30. inorganic
  31. key
  32. laboratory
  33. lies
  34. life
  35. lithographically
  36. lots
  37. metabolism
  38. mice
  39. microfluidically
  40. minimal
  41. molecules
  42. pipes
  43. printer
  44. reaction
  45. reactions
  46. remember
  47. show
  48. similar
  49. system
  50. tens
  51. test