[HN Gopher] Mike Levin on using bioelectricity to study how cell...
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Mike Levin on using bioelectricity to study how cells form (2019)
Author : walterbell
Score : 103 points
Date : 2021-07-13 11:43 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (wyss.harvard.edu)
(TXT) w3m dump (wyss.harvard.edu)
| jhoechtl wrote:
| A Frankenstein image used in the article: https://wyss-
| prod.imgix.net/app/uploads/2019/07/25150410/She...
| 9214 wrote:
| Instantly reminded me of "Body Electric" by Robert Becker. A
| fascinating account of how novelty in research is often ridiculed
| despite being revolutionary, interspersed with various
| electromagnetic theories: from limb regeneration with cancer
| growth to life's origins, epigenesis, and embryology.
|
| Edit: gah, should've read the article before commenting, he
| actually mentions the book as one of his inspirations.
| Voloskaya wrote:
| He also wrote [1], which is a review of the development in that
| domain in the last 10 years or so. It's amazing how much progress
| has been made even when compared to OP links which is only 2
| years old. This is by far the best thing I have read in the last
| 12 months. From controlling morphogenesis, re-viewing what life
| and death really mean, where memory actually live, how to create
| synthetic lifeforms etc. I would recommend it to anyone. It's
| strangely relevant to computer science/AI as well in my opinion.
|
| The ethical implications are also quite staggering to think
| about.
|
| You can also find a keynote from him from the last ALife
| conference, around the same theme, but less thorough [2].
|
| [1] "Life, death, and self: Fundamental questions of primitive
| cognition viewed through the lens of body plasticity and
| synthetic organisms"
| https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00062...
| (You can find it in full on Sci-hub).
|
| [2] "Multi-scale goal-directedness in biology as inspiration for
| robotics and artificial life"
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L43-XE1uwWc
| machiaweliczny wrote:
| This is so exciting that I almost wanted to sign up for
| biology/bioinformatics degree after seeing this. I think they
| will get Nobel prize.
| dang wrote:
| Past related threads:
|
| _What Bodies Think About: Bioelectric Computation Outside the
| Nervous System_ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18736698 -
| Dec 2018 (16 comments)
|
| _On Having No Head: Cognition Throughout Biological Systems
| (2016)_ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18700328 - Dec
| 2018 (10 comments)
|
| _Memory in the Flesh: Can memories survive outside the brain?_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9226391 - March 2015 (12
| comments)
|
| Many comments referencing his 2018 talk:
|
| https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...
| walterbell wrote:
| 2020 TED talk with demo footage,
| https://www.ted.com/talks/michael_levin_the_electrical_bluep...
|
| _> DNA isn 't the only builder in the biological world --
| there's also a mysterious bioelectric layer directing cells to
| work together to grow organs, systems and bodies, says biologist
| Michael Levin. Sharing unforgettable and groundbreaking footage
| of two-headed worms, he introduces us to xenobots -- the world's
| first living robots, created in his lab by cracking the
| electrical code of cells -- and discusses what this discovery may
| mean for the future of medicine, the environment and even life
| itself._
|
| Levin's work was partly funded by the late Paul Allen, co-founder
| of Microsoft, https://allencenter.tufts.edu/
| 7373737373 wrote:
| This talk of his blew my mind: "What Bodies Think About:
| Bioelectric Computation Outside the Nervous System - NeurIPS
| 2018"
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjD1aLm4Thg
| leesec wrote:
| Just piling on: also absolutely loved this talk, even as
| someone not in the industry.
| npwr wrote:
| Their progress is astonishing. I've been following it for a few
| years and their research is barely starting to reach the
| mainstream media. He will get a Nobel for sure.
|
| These are wild discoveries, maybe one day regrowing a lost arm we
| be more than science fiction!
| bigbizisverywyz wrote:
| Let's start with teeth please :)
| cma wrote:
| He did this podcast a while back that was really good:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gm7VDk8kxOw
| nafix wrote:
| If interested in this topic, you may want to check out the book
| "The Body Electric" by Robert Becker.
| throwaway803453 wrote:
| Too funny, I literally turned the last page of that book last
| night. It is essentially a meta study on past research
| regarding the influence of electric potentials and currents on
| regeneration and healing along with the potential dangers of
| non-ionizing EMF radiation. I felt like I was reading a book
| from the future despite most of the research being from the
| 1950-70's.
| dosman33 wrote:
| Moar people need to be talking about this guys work, a buddy
| clued me in to it last year. Creating new species without any
| genetic changes... it's huge. Not only has he discovered a new
| communication control channel in biology, machine learning is
| unlocking the commands to intelligently manipulate that channel
| at will. It's many times deeper this too, this is incredible
| work.
|
| Want those tree-grown steaks rather than a stew of muscle cells
| with no structure? This work is how you grow an intact cow muscle
| without the rest of the cow with ease. Want to tell those cancer
| cells using your body as a petrie dish to knock it off and to
| start working with the rest of your body again? This is a direct
| path towards that too.
|
| Comparing his 2020 ALife talk to another one published in 2021
| he's still making progress:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-9rLlFgcm0
|
| The mainstream of higher-ed biology is not yet fully on board and
| is still snickering at his work because he is an outsider, but
| his results are impressive enough that doubters will become
| irrelevant soon enough.
| bserge wrote:
| Sounds pretty amazing. I wonder if it can be used to enhance
| parts of the brain (imagine a larger or more dense PFC, which
| so many dearly need) and muscle (always in top shape). That
| would be fantastic, along with super regeneration.
| [deleted]
| briefcomment wrote:
| > "new communication control channel in biology"
|
| Not necessarily new, "The Body Electric" which Levin himself
| cites as his inspiration, has been around for almost 50 years
| [1]. It's sad that something so revolutionary can be sidelined
| for half a century, but it's exhilarating to see the rapid
| progress that really smart people can make when they consider
| some fringe ideas.
|
| [1]https://www.amazon.com/Body-Electric-Electromagnetism-
| Founda...
| lurquer wrote:
| Levin's papers are wonderful.
|
| I got sucked into morphogenesis last year and wrote an entire
| simulator.
|
| I was able to simulate a flatworm splitting its head: the
| greatest day of my year. (Granted, it was a very boring locked-
| down year...)
|
| The very simplistic implementation behind the simulator is here:
| http://cycell2d.com/field.html
|
| Anyway, Levin is very inspiring and interesting.
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