Physics of Life, Ep 1: What can physics tell us about ourselves?
Humans can live up to age 100, and not 1000 – why? Are there limits in how much our brains can think and compute? The laws of physics can help explain a lot, both about our own human bodies and how we are connected to life all around us.
COMPLEXITY · Abha Eli Phoboo, Geoffrey West, Chris Kempes, Vijay Balasubramanian
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Show Notes
Guests:
- Vijay Balasubramanian, External Professor at the Santa Fe Institute, Cathy and Marc Lasry Professor of Physics at the University of Pennsylvania
- Geoffrey West, Shannan Distinguished Professor and Past President, Santa Fe Institute
Hosts: Abha Eli Phoboo & Chris Kempes
Producer: Katherine Moncure
Podcast theme music: Mitch Mignano
Other Music: Blue Dot Sessions, Pink House Music, Eardeer, and Craig Smith.
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SFI programs:
- Complexity Global School
- Complexity Explorer: Fractals & Scaling
- Education
Books & Stories:
- Tell Me Why by Arkady Leokum
- Scale by Geoffrey West
- “Funes, the Memorious” by Jorge Luis Borges
Talks:
- How the Brain Makes You: Collective Intelligence and Computation by Neural Circuits by Vijay Balasubramanian
- The Future of the Planet: Life, Growth and Death in Organisms, Cities and Companies by Geoffrey West
- Energy, Scaling & The Future of Life on Earth by Geoffrey West
- Complex Time Working Group: “What is Sleep?” with Geoffrey West, Van Savage, Alex Herman
Papers:
- “Brain Power” in PNAS (August 2, 2021) doi.org/10.1073/pnas.210702211
- “The Physical Effects of Learning” preprint published in biorxiv
- “Unraveling why we sleep: Quantitative analysis reveals abrupt transition from neural reorganization to repair in early development” in Science Advances (September 18, 2020) DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aba0398
- “The Scales That Limit: The Physical Boundaries of Evolution” in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution (August 7, 2019) doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2019.00242