132 | Michael Levin on Growth, Form, Information, and the Self

132 | Michael Levin on Growth, Form, Information, and the Self

As a semi-outsider, it's fun for me to watch as a new era dawns in biology: one that adds ideas from physics, big data, computer science, and information theory to the usual biological toolkit. One of the big areas of study in this burgeoning field is the relationship between the basic bioinformatic building blocks (genes and proteins) to the macroscopic organism that eventually results. That relationship is not a simple one, as we're discovering. Standard metaphors notwithstanding, an organism is not a machine based on genetic blueprints. I talk with biologist and information scientist Michael Levin about how information and physical constraints come together to make organisms and selves.

Support Mindscape on Patreon.

Michael Levin received his Ph.D. in genetics from Harvard University. He is currently Distinguished Professor and Vannevar Bush Chair in the Biology department at Tufts University, and serves as director of the Tufts Center for Regenerative and Developmental Biology. His work on left-right asymmetric body structures is on Nature's list of 100 Milestones of Developmental Biology of the Century.


Jaksot(416)

200 | Solo: The Philosophy of the Multiverse

200 | Solo: The Philosophy of the Multiverse

The 200th episode of Mindscape! Thanks to everyone for sticking around for this long. To celebrate, a solo episode discussing a set of issues naturally arising at the intersection of philosophy and ph...

6 Kesä 20222h 14min

199 | Elizabeth Cohen on Time and Other Political Values

199 | Elizabeth Cohen on Time and Other Political Values

Time is everywhere, pervading each aspect of intellectual inquiry — from physics to philosophy to biology to psychology, and all the way up to politics. Considerations of time help govern a nation's s...

30 Touko 20221h 12min

198 | Nick Lane on Powering Biology

198 | Nick Lane on Powering Biology

The origin of life here on Earth was an important and fascinating event, but it was also a long time ago and hasn't left many pieces of direct evidence concerning what actually happened. One set of cl...

23 Touko 20221h 25min

197 | Catherine Brinkley on the Science of Cities

197 | Catherine Brinkley on the Science of Cities

The concept of the city is a crucial one for human civilization: people living in proximity, bringing in resources from outside, separated from the labors of subsistence so they can engage in the trad...

16 Touko 20221h 8min

AMA | May 2022

AMA | May 2022

Welcome to the May 2022 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded by Patreon supporters (who are also the ones asking the questions). I take the large number of questio...

12 Touko 20223h 36min

196 | Judea Pearl on Cause and Effect

196 | Judea Pearl on Cause and Effect

To say that event A causes event B is to not only make a claim about our actual world, but about other possible worlds — in worlds where A didn't happen but everything else was the same, B would not h...

9 Touko 20221h 16min

195 | Richard Dawkins on Flight and Other Evolutionary Achievements

195 | Richard Dawkins on Flight and Other Evolutionary Achievements

Evolution has equipped species with a variety of ways to travel through the air — flapping, gliding, floating, not to mention jumping really high. But it hasn't invented jet engines. What are the diff...

2 Touko 20221h 18min

194 | Frans de Waal on Culture and Gender in Primates

194 | Frans de Waal on Culture and Gender in Primates

Humans are related to all other species here on Earth, but some are closer relatives than others. Primates, a group that includes apes, monkeys, lemurs, and others besides ourselves, are our closest r...

25 Huhti 20221h 8min

Suosittua kategoriassa Tiede

rss-mita-tulisi-tietaa
rss-poliisin-mieli
utelias-mieli
tiedekulma-podcast
docemilia
rss-duodecim-lehti
rss-luontopodi-samuel-glassar-tutkii-luonnon-ihmeita
filocast-filosofian-perusteet
rss-tervetta-skeptisyytta