Powering the complexity of life with Michael Levin and Nick Lane

This episode is with Michael Levin and Nick Lane. Mike is a Professor in the Biology department at Tufts University. He studies the role of bioelectric signals in regulating development and regeneration in animals. Nick is a professor of Evolutionary Biochemistry at University College London. His work is focused on the fundamental processes that underlie the origin and evolution of life. In this conversation, we talk about major transitions and key innovations in biology, information in biological systems, bioelectricity, emergence of eukaryotes and importance of bioelectric signals to create artificial life.    

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Nick Lane -

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Michael Levin -

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Timestamps: 

00:00:00 Introduction 

00:00:58 Transition from chemistry to biology 

00:06:53 Emergence of complexity 

00:09:53 Key innovation of biology (Resting potential over genome) 

00:13:53 Hardware-software in biology 

00:15:35 Evolutionary biology and software of extinct species 

00:18:48 Bioelectricity and biology 

00:21:45 Bioelectricity at molecular level 

00:29:05 Metabolism is central to bioelectric signals 

00:32:21 How bioelectric systems evolve? 

00:43:33 Emergence of eukaryotes 

00:47:05 Multicellularity 

01:19:55 Plasticity at the genome level 

01:30:02 How the memories are stored? 

01:44:00 Ploidy (genome copies) and biology 

01:49:00 Anesthesia 

01:53:37 Importance of bioelectricity to create synthetic life 

01:58:38 Thank you    


Music by: Ahmed Hassan (https://www.youtube.com/@2ays577/featured)