Think like a physicist. Wonder like a human. Into the Impossible is where Cosmic Conversations happen — uniting Nobel Prize winners, iconoclasts, authors, and technologists to explore reality’s deepest questions. From AI to aliens, from biophysics to the brain, from the cosmos to the multiverse, Brian Keating, Chancellor’s Distinguished Professor of Physics at UC San Diego covers it all.
If you’ve ever asked What’s out there? or What’s next?, this is where curiosity meets clarity.
Learn to think like this. 🎙 Full episodes, notes & more: briankeating.com/podcast
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Think like a physicist. Wonder like a human. Into the Impossible is where Cosmic Conversations happen — uniting Nobel Prize winners, iconoclasts, authors, and technologists to explore reality’s deepest questions. From AI to aliens, from biophysics to the brain, from the cosmos to the multiverse, Brian Keating, Chancellor’s Distinguished Professor of Physics at UC San Diego covers it all.
If you’ve ever asked What’s out there? or What’s next?, this is where curiosity meets clarity.
Learn to think like this. 🎙 Full episodes, notes & more: briankeating.com/podcast
Could Biological Robots Heal Us from the Inside? | Michael Levin
Into the Impossible With Brian Keating
51 minutes
1 month ago
Could Biological Robots Heal Us from the Inside? | Michael Levin
Get started with 1 month free of Superhuman today, using my link: https://try.sprh.mn/briankeating
What if cells from your own trachea sitting in a petri dish right now, could spontaneously organize into swimming robots that heal brain tissue? What if frog skin cells with no genetic modification whatsoever, could build copies of themselves from spare parts lying around?
This isn't science fiction. This is the work of Michael Levin at Tufts University and is completely rewriting the rules of biology.
Michael Levin's research challenges our fundamental understanding of what life is and where biological properties emerge from. Michael Levin is a distinguished biologist at Tufts University and director of the Allen Discovery Center, whose groundbreaking research on bio electricity and regenerative biology is reshaping our understanding of how biological systems process information and pursue goals.
His Xenobots, living robots built from frog cells, swim around, work together, and reproduce in ways that have never existed on Earth.
What does this tell us about consciousness, intelligence, and the nature of life itself?
KEY TAKEAWAYS
00:00 "Bioelectricity: Nature’s Cognitive Glue"
04:57 Neuronal Voltage Gradients Enable Computation
08:17 Magnetic Fields and Living Systems
11:43 "Voltage, Membranes, and Injury Signals"
14:51 "Bioelectric Properties in Cells"
15:59 Cell Circuits and Networks
19:31 "Ion Drugs Overcome Electrode Limits"
22:53 Asymmetric Features in Living Creatures
26:00 Embryo Symmetry Breaking Mechanism
30:11 "Space-Time Effort and Goal Scope"
33:19 "Origins: Universe and Life"
36:29 Causal Integration and Emergence Insights
42:02 Cell Liberation Enables Autonomous Behavior
43:53 "Xenobots: Self-Replicating Robots"
47:04 "Consciousness, Life, and Intelligence"
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Additional resources:
Levin Lab https://www.drmichaellevin.org/
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Michael Levin’s book: https://a.co/d/dzl9wPQ
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Into the Impossible With Brian Keating
Think like a physicist. Wonder like a human. Into the Impossible is where Cosmic Conversations happen — uniting Nobel Prize winners, iconoclasts, authors, and technologists to explore reality’s deepest questions. From AI to aliens, from biophysics to the brain, from the cosmos to the multiverse, Brian Keating, Chancellor’s Distinguished Professor of Physics at UC San Diego covers it all.
If you’ve ever asked What’s out there? or What’s next?, this is where curiosity meets clarity.
Learn to think like this. 🎙 Full episodes, notes & more: briankeating.com/podcast
