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>> We ran ACE-M2
about four years ago.

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And in between that four-year
period, the samples sat

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in the extremely
stable environment

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of the International
Space Station.

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These experiments are crucial

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in developing the fundamental
physics rules, if you will.

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We want a general knowledge
of what controls stability

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in the long term in
the absence of gravity.

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Now, from an actual
pragmatic level of the humans

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that are going to
be participating

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in long-term exploration
and habitation, this matters

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because these colloidal
particles a micron

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across are almost
identical in structure.

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The same physics governs them
as a lot of gel materials.

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And, in particular, materials
that will have a direct impact

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on the health and
quality of life of people

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in exploration and habitation.

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From skin creams.

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Shampoos. Washing your clothes.

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Eating your food.

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Perhaps medicines.

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Being able to say that in
the long term we understand

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that these materials
will still be there.

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Still be functioning.

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Still be stable after months,
years and beyond in low

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and no gravity as a direct
consequence of the understanding

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that we're getting
from our colloid work

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on the Space Station.

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Now, what was exciting about the
BCAT-KP samples is that we able

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to run those for several months.

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But I took some of the same
exact samples and put them

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into the ACE experiment to
look at on a microscopic level.

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So we're combining many
of these modalities

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from multiple experiments
to explore a wide range

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of the time scales and length
scales of the structure

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and dynamics of these samples.

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We can look at the
months-long behavior

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with time-lapsed
photography with BCAT.

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And then we can take the
same sample and put it

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in the microscope, which
we have done with ACE.

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One of the great things about
being at Harvard in particular

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with my advisor Professor
David Weitz is, again,

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creating a long-term,
stable research environment

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to take bigger intellectual
risks.

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I've been in his lab
for almost 20 years,

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and he's supported
this work for decades.

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And that's enabled a whole
host of exploratory ideas

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that we would not be able
to do if we were under,

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say more short-term
thinking, short-term projects.

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He's a real visionary.

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One of the leading
scientists in the world.

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Because he's able to support
and to really incubate a lot

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of broad-based thinking
that we've been able to put

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into practice here with
many different experiments

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on the Space Station with NASA.

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And it's been tremendously
valuable to me

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as a scientist personally, but
more broadly to the whole field.

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Because NASA has given us a
stable platform, both physically

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with the International
Space Station

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and with the funding
to take new risks.

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To go into areas that other
people just wouldn't have the

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resources to do.

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We're doing these experiments
on the Space Station,

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and we're able to probe
things like stability

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over yearlong time scales.

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That's just not possible for
the typical short-term thinking

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that a lot of other funding
agencies have imposed

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on their scientists.

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And I think it's
a great example,

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not just for our subfield,
but for science general.

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That if you want to open
up the space for people

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to think broadly,
to think deeper,

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to think a little bit beyond
what's just in front of them.

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Which I think is very important.

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Not just for the future of our
country, but for the future

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of inquiry in general
as we see lots

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of things happening
around the world.

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That NASA is almost
unique in it's ability

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to incubate this kind of deep
scientific inquiry in a way

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that very few other
places are able to do.

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Our data thus far
has been very good.

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We're able to make these full 3D
maps of millimeter-size samples.

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Which is something that we
haven't even done on the ground

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because of the stability
and the reproducibility

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and the engineering
in this microscope.

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We're very excited to be here.

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The engineering has been great.

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We've long anticipated
these results.

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And it's many years of work by
a large number of people coming

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to fruition in our
experiment this week.

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And it's really an enormous
privilege to be able

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to get this wonderful
level of quality data.