Martin Hanczyc: The line between life and not-life

www.ted.com In his lab, Martin Hanczyc makes "protocells," experimental blobs of chemicals that behave like living cells. His work demonstrates how life might have first occurred on Earth ... and perhaps elsewhere too.
TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, Bill Gates on malaria and mosquitoes, Pattie Maes on the "Sixth Sense" wearable tech, and "Lost" producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts. Closed captions and translated subtitles in a variety of languages are now available on TED.com, at www.ted.com/translate.

[@Truthiness231]

The "self replication moment" was seriously impressive... This is also the first time I've seen a good road-map of where to go to figure out the origins of life. More like this please ^.^

[@Maheep_Infinity]

Me too

[@jmalmsten]

When that protocell replicated itself I just went, "WOAH!"... I'm starting to love TED again. :D

[@jessebryant9233]

At that moment, you were duped!

[@Tetrad20]

my jaw dropped and i got goosebumps when it replicated!

[@jesseriker3076]

The speaker made no claims that were not demonstrable. So, why would 56 people do a thumbs down? This went against their Sunday school lessons?

[@definitelynotcrazyrei3890]

You can thank "Science Uprising" for that

[@jamesmills8632]

To be fair they may have just not found it fascinating and thought it was boreing.

[@cjhepburn7406]

Jesse Riker Sure it wasn't 23 thumbs down...?

[@definitelynotcrazyrei3890]

@@cjhepburn7406 it's 61, go troll somewhere else.

[@cjhepburn7406]

Purple Rei Just checkking...no need 2 get touchy. Cj.

[@mohe3439]

This is one of those TED talks that REALLY get you to think, definitely favoriting this.

[@Ignorantf00l]

Holy shit! I was like "it's alive" like 3 or 4 times during this... When that hybrid protocell suddenly mutliplied I had to stand up from my chair in awe...

[@edga2323]

this is the most amazing thing i've ever seen

[@juliannevillecorrea]

awesome talk ... very well given ... thank you

[@cybermuse_shosh]

A very clear explanation and visual demonstration of protocells. Excellent for someone with little background in chemistry. Yes, that self-replication moment was a "WOW!" moment.

[@Paul-A01]

I remember a previous Ted talk related to this one. Both of these are great.

[@Gnometower]

one of the greatest ted talks in a while

[@vincentpol]

This is absolutely amazing.

[@aron6964]

This absolutely needs more views! Amazing talk and stunning new insights.. Non-life behaving as if it is life. The ''sponteneous cell division'' and the ''hybrid behaviour'' blew me away! Can't give this enough thumbs up :-)

[@theBigRubez]

i dont understand how he can make this happen but it is AMAZINGGGGGG

[@Buoy2]

the interacting protocells were SO CUTE ^_____^

[@cjhepburn7406]

This might be the most significant video ever...

[@Sleepy.Time.]

Great presentation.

[@Metalistforlife]

I want my TED talks in 1080p ! I demandsss it...

[@captainfantastardo]

This video is so interesting. Wow.

[@zuppers]

WOW that was amazing!!

[@JayDee98765]

Truly remarkable. Bravo.

[@dcerv9250]

Greatest video i seen on youtube. Thank you Martin hanczyc for your great presentation, a wonderfull introduction to evolutionary biology. And thanks TED for making the title and subtitle in my native language.

[@Raydensheraj]

@@hasanbey59 Yeah since we have been doing science for 3 million years... But it's so simple, what we humans call Nature does what it wants... But to think a man made God creates thinks....nope.

[@Aaron.Reichert]

Intriguing

[@jpmthemonk]

This is amazing!!! Absolutely wow-inducing at 6:45.

[@HigherPlanes]

I don't know, but by the end of the video, I'm starting to feel like this guy deserves a Nobel prize for his findings.

[@Zralf]

that, is both amazing and amusing, i could almost hear simon form yogscast screaming " aaaaawwwwwww" when the blobs moved

[@kiddhitta]

thats my favourite thing about science. even if i have no clue what so ever, how they do things like this, i still find it fascinating.

[@pernordin2641]

Very interesting. I have been contemplating very much lately, the step between chemical reactions via self replicating molecules to life. This shows that the step really isn't as big as previously thought to be. This shows a principle of how it could have started on a much more simple level than what we think, when looking at the complexity of DNA, not to mention the complexity of a full modern cell.

[@Jesses001]

That was a LOT of information to cram into 14 minutes. I feel like I only got the cliff notes, ha. He did a great job of running though all that so fast.

[@GarageSaleMonster]

yeah its interesting but if you dig deeper and see all the assumptions made this is a mess. start with RNA

[@aniekanumoren6088]

The RNA tid bit is prolly just a proof of concept to show the catalytic ability of montmorillonite. Researchers are still working on how the genetic material could've naturally occured. So much work to be done

[@alcesmir]

I'm a bit curious whether the protocells actually moves itself to the food or if its transportation is caused by mere osmosis/diffusion (or similar). Anyway, it is an amazing and inspiring talk. This is the kind of talks you want to see from TED. It would be interesting to see a longer and more detailed talk on the subject though. This one was, frankly, a bit shallow (albeit still amazing).

[@scarfprickles]

This is amazing

[@fantasticpanties]

Wow!!! This guy is blowing my mind! : )

[@dudepal187]

My jaw dropped when he got the protocells to replicate. Thats really amazing, I wish I knew the details on what exactly he used to make them and what made them behave the way they did.

[@rogbec01]

My draws dropped when he said oil particles splitting into two oil droplets was self replication! Please!

[@JamieDelour]

@@rogbec01 I thought I was the only one thinking that.... droplets of things moving about.. *ooooh it's alive!"

[@narutosramenbuddy]

"They are dirty little protocells." oh my god. i died.

[@Unlucky-Dube]

Why haven't I seen this before?

[@cjhepburn7406]

The Vatican...

[@appleorangebanana2]

Wow! Just absolutely amazing! Just ... Wow

[@iFoamy]

Amazing!

[@Speedy.V]

SIMPLY AMAZING

[@AtheerAl]

amazing..

[@TheFartoholic]

I wish this was 20 minutes long so he could give a more detailed explanation of what he was actually showing us. Still, very good talk.

[@therrydicule]

No I'm not ignorant : They did an experience where they took the nucleus out of the cell, and the cell was performing many of it's basic task for a while. The only difference is that it die quickly and does not reproduce, because the function of maintenance and division are not there. It was pretty much alive.

[@Bronze_Age_Sea_Person]

What are the five chemicals he used to do the experiments?

[@sealofapoorval7437]

Water, 2 types of oils and 2 types of colorings to identify them. Most likely

[@cjhepburn7406]

@@sealofapoorval7437 Ok. H2o. What were the oils and colors...

[@ZeeZee9]

@@sealofapoorval7437 I think it was more than that. And he said water was not used

[@wikiemol2]

Does anyone know how I might be able to perform any of the experiments described in the videos?

[@BBAHUNTER]

@oweja I am amused by your reply separating down to the components of the discussion. I also totally agree with you. I'll contribute to cause: Every course of action one takes was caused by some kind of preceding factor.

[@fearzone91]

fascinating.

[@theBigRubez]

This absolutely blows my mind... I wish I knew more about chemistry and biology so i could understand this better... because this is seriously blowing my fucking mind out.

[@Laceylove303]

I want to do this!!

[@GreenSlugg]

I don't necessarily agree with this comment in all areas, but it is one of the most well-thought-out comments that I have read on KZbin. Nice job Hayden.

[@Ro4aL]

AWESOME!!!

[@PotadoTomado]

Woah, it actually reproduces!?!? Amazing!

[@qttytn]

Great talk, and no the intro volume isn't especially loud, but still 15 seconds I don't have to spend

[@beerbelliesinc]

at two points 10:22 and 11:38 the nice young man said that the black junk tar ozz was organic. This is absolutely amazing!!!!!!

[@GreenSlugg]

I have a video where I replied to this. I looked up his research and explained it in lay-terms, however I also put up a link to a Nature news article on the subject if you want more detail. Both of them, and the other links I posted, should be understandable to most laypeople.

[@GreenSlugg]

Gould actually also said something to the extent of the extreme rarity of transition forms is the trade secret of paleontology. Google it - you might find it. He also got mad that Creationists used the quote. Some people say that it was out-of-context, but how so? Just because someone does not agree with your thesis does not mean that it is out-of-context. Anyway, I am a biotech student. I made a reply to this video. Thought you might be interested in seeing it.

[@RowieSundog]

I've known the phrase "primordial soup" for a while but this video shows me that the point of origin of life has been likely found with not much made of it somehow

[@xinlo]

@DaddyDAJ Well, for example, we have separately created phylogenetic trees based off of a variety of fields that all align with the basic genetic field, aside from a few minor discrepancies. I'm talking genetics, embryology, histology, paleontology, and plenty other I can't remember. We have vestigial, homologous, and analogous structures to look at. For natural selection, we even have emergent adaptations to live in previously impossible conditions, like high pH, or arsenic rich.

[@cjhepburn7406]

How did Martin activate the chemicals?

[@mattmoore111]

At what pressure were his oil droplet experiments conducted? Did he try the experiment with no light at all ? Does the shape and size of the container matter? And , when the "cellular division" occured, was that two new hybrids or the re-seperation of a and b ?

[@SEThatered]

@D4RK5iDERS To be honest they already cut the volume downon the intro. If you don't believe me go and re-watch the older TED-talks.

[@therrydicule]

And what alternatives explanation do you have?

[@AlkisGD]

@Wheelsgr I only know about chemistry what I was taught in high school, so to me it looks like the black bits who like to stick together engulfed the orange bits and made a big blob. When the blob got big, the orange bits' vibration became too strong for the outer membrane to hold, and the blob got cut in half. Of course, this doesn't meant the talk wasn't interesting. It'd be cool to find out that we started like these dumb protocells (or that Aliens or the Predators did :P )

[@nadurtha8536]

This is why everyone should appreciate the language of Chemistry. It's the beautiful science that literally governs life at the fundamental level. The reason why you can think (acetylcholine neurotransmitters), move (Adenosine Triphosphate), Replicate (DNA), why you are still alive (Cis-platin, Aspirin, Penicillin) and how crimes are solved (NMR, Mass Spec, IR analysis etc). As logical as Maths and as Natural as the earth underneath your feet.

[@owenjallen]

@NaxNax96 There may always be a blind spot in the application of the concept of optimal decision-making. There is huge redundancy in the process of developing a more complex organism. Because our greatest obvious danger is ourselves, things in our society that influence our behaviour, are the most important to keep a bit of redundancy around.

[@GreenSlugg]

I actually made a video reply to this. My major is biotechnology. I've got one more year (plus about two classes, because I refuse to do 18 credits at a time). You will get a different view on this research with my video, however I explain things so that the average person can understand them, and I put links in the description box so that you can see another talk he did and read more about this in a Nature news article.

[@ShellingtonLabs]

I still don't understand. How do these protocells works? How do they move, mate and eat. I don't understand how this works, any further explanation would be greatly appreciated.

[@brentzittel]

where can i buy these proto cells?

[@xinlo]

@MaxieGracie You're right, that only goes back through eukaryotes, if I remember correctly. But that's just one method of investigation. How about retrovirus mapping. They produce fixed structures and they are complex and unique, so it is not inference conjecture that they are the same. Mapping according to RVs produces literally the SAME TREE as LINEs and SINEs and all other disciplines. This alignment with independent disciplines is what makes it more than conjecture. It all points to the tree

[@GreenSlugg]

The terms are actually used in this fashion on a regular basis. Yes, it is not a completely accurate statement, however this is how the terms are used, even in a college biology classroom (something that I have much experience with).

[@JMartinsATV]

God disapproves^^ This was a truly ground-breaking and interesting TEDTalk.

[@TheOnlyKarkar]

@dannywizz Welcome to KZbin.

[@therrydicule]

Thirdly, since you ask so much: there been a study by William Ratcliff in Minnesota U who created multicellular species out of a single cell brewer yeast. How did he do that? By putting the yeast through selective pressure.

[@Xunkun]

The chain goes: Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Psychology, Sociology That knowing the laws of nature of a Big Bang, you could extrapolate how that universe will work (at least one version, anyways: as you go left-to-right, it gets more specific about "this version of"-- I'm prolly not making this clear, but best I can do), and from there, know how an organism could work, including brain chemistry, and to goup behavior. And going left, you may see there's many potential expressions.

[@breckinloggins]

The short answer is "chemistry". The best way to visualize it on a human scale would be to get a bunch of Bucky Balls (oops, not anymore) spread them out on a table, and shake the table around. The attraction and repulsion causes movement and activity. This is an extreme simplification, but it will start to give you an idea. If you think of atoms as specialized "magnets" that selectively attract and repel, it REALLY helps to visualize things.

[@HigherPlanes]

@JMartinsATV Actuallly, this presentation forces me to totally re-evaluate the meaning of intelligence

[@delsydebothom3544]

I am interested in replicating this for my homeschooled son. Does anyone know offhand where can I find information on the necessary equipment? Many thanks!

[@TGAPOO]

@MaxieGracie feathers are decent insulators and can be water proof. (The present theory is that feathers evolved from a hair-like substance, I think.) A [bird] wing is essentially a specialized arm with feathers growing from it. So we have feathers evolving. Then we have feathers orienting to form a proto-wing to facilitate gliding, because gliding is a huge mobility advantage. From gliding its not a huge stretch to get to true flight. This is from a half-remembered biology course...

[@FilippoGadotti]

What would be the hype of finding one of these protocells in a different planet? Would prob. feature a headline of the sort "LIFE FOUND ON MARS" :)

[@kentrel2]

What I'm curious about is, did the two new protocells replicate again producing 4 new cells, and what exactly is the process that drove them to split apart like that

[@spuddickson9197]

binary fission

[@SpecialPioneerSmerf]

"self replication moment" OMG! X_x

[@twrciv]

Without looking it up on the internet, can you tell me what the next sentence says?

[@GreenSlugg]

goo from the Xfiles? I am interested and listening.

[@avedic]

9:25 wow! :0

[@carlosewm]

@khatack Possibly. Egotism, inequality and injustice have their big share too. Good point about schools, reminds me of when I acknowledged that during the period of dictatorship in my country, philosophy and sociology were excluded from the classes because it had a potential for forming thinkers.

[@therrydicule]

Punctuated equilibrium is not incompatible with Darwin theory. Darwin never written that the rate of evolution was stagnant. Gould's just re-took some advancement in the field of mathematics to apply it on evolutionary mechanism, and added it to the work on genetic revolutions by Ernst Mayr. By the way, you could see it works really well since the idea been used in organizational behaviour, technological studies, psychology and in the department of defence.

[@apricotsnms516]

@xinlo First off I wasn't really responding to anyone, in fact I didn't read the comments. Secondly, it's really up to the individual to take the theory and ponder for themselves. I literally have no say in what anyone believes in.

[@GreenSlugg]

I just made a video reply to this. A lot of people are misunderstanding what he is talking about.

[@BopZ61191]

@IMMAREAPER yup, not directly... anyway, Imma do my HW now... it's been a nice short convo, reaper... may u reap in peace...!

[@carlosewm]

@AugustVonpetersborg I agree that we might find evidence of such interaction, that's why I've inserted "for now" in my text.

[@JustLilGecko]

Try looking it up on Wikipedia.

[@elchafa337]

Wow, that hybrid protocell self-replicated?

[@MikelSyn]

You know, I agreed with you with everything you said. And THEN you had to bring up the last part, which has nothing to do with anything above and is a non-sequitur.

[@slugfly]

That cat at the beginning evolved from Jamie Hyneman.

[@Lundix]

@carlosewm Verifiability is a difficult thing, on any scale transcending the "I think/see/hear/feel/taste/smell" level. On the importance of critical thinking I completely agree.

[@JereGib1789]

yeah, imagine if it had been different there might have been even more life forms, we are very lucky indeed

[@cjhepburn7406]

So it's a combination of energy, photosynthisis and metabolism. Wow.

[@b0w5er]

Can the "droplet" at 06:12 die? Can it be brought back to life if it can?

[@PinkProgram]

@reglee51 they didn't say it was life. The protocells are between alive and not alive. They don't quite fit in either category :3

[@theunabletable]

@DaddyDAJ I find it a bit funny that you find it even close to reasonable that in a few years we're expected to have mapped out a 4 billion year long process

[@Spaceisprettybig]

It's the goo from Xfiles!!

[@EllaABo]

There's a nice discussion about religion going on down here. All I want to say, though, is that it is amazing that we can create life-like things this way, and that it helps all of us understand how life might have come into existance.