How synthetic biology can improve our health, food and materials | Emily Leproust

TED Talks Daily

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4.1 • 11.9K Ratings

🗓️ 16 March 2021

⏱️ 12 minutes

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Summary

What if we could use biology to restore our balance with nature without giving up modern creature comforts? Advocating for a new kind of environmentalism, scientist and entrepreneur Emily Leproust rethinks modern sustainability at the molecular level, using synthetic biology to create green alternatives. From lab-developed insulin and disease-resistant bananas to airplanes made of super-strong spider silk, she explains how reading and writing DNA can lead to groundbreaking innovations in health, food and materials.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to TED Talks Daily. I'm Elise Hugh. We are confronting one of the biggest
0:09.1	challenges for humankind, which is what we humans have done to the environment. We are out of
0:15.4	balance with nature. In her talk from TED at BCG in 2020, DNA synthesizer, LaPruc proposes ways to get us back in harmony with nature by embracing synthetic technology.
0:30.6	You probably don't think about it, but every day nature is trying to kill you.
0:35.1	We as human place constant pressure on our natural world.
0:38.9	And in response, nature fights back to balance the scales.
0:42.4	Nature has been adapting and reacting to the presence of human developments,
0:46.3	just like we've been adapting and reacting to nature.
0:49.4	And nature is telling us we are on unsustainable path.
0:53.2	It is time to course correct. That does not mean
0:56.5	abandoning technology, but it means harnessing the power of biology itself to reconcile the
1:03.1	creature comfort of human civilization with our natural world. Some of you may be thinking, but
1:08.8	I recycle or I don't eat meat or I take the bus or I grow my own food.
1:13.2	And in fact, you may be doing your part to lift sustainably.
1:17.5	And if you do, good for you.
1:19.6	In my view, though, it's impossible to exclusively rely on an individual effort to make the changes we need.
1:26.9	We have to make the changes at a global scale to truly make so different.
1:32.3	And that requires rethinking what modern global sustainability looks like
1:37.3	and a new kind of environmentalism.
1:40.2	To be clear, when I talk about sustainability, it's not just about the environment.
1:45.4	While that's an important piece, sustainability is about much more.
1:50.2	Modern sustainability is the integration of the environment, people, and the economy.
	...

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