[HN Gopher] Cells use 'bioelectricity' to coordinate and make gr...
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Cells use 'bioelectricity' to coordinate and make group decisions
Author : marojejian
Score : 164 points
Date : 2026-02-01 00:00 UTC (23 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.quantamagazine.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.quantamagazine.org)
| marojejian wrote:
| Even since reading about Michael Levin's work, I've been sold
| that there is a lot going on in terms of bioelectricity outside
| of neurons. But I haven't seen that much progress. This is one
| interesting, albeit simple example.
|
| >In this way, bioelectrical flow across cell membranes lets
| tissues test which cells are the least healthy and mark them for
| extrusion. "They're always pushing against each other and
| bullying each other. And what they're doing is probing each other
| for which one's the weakest link," Rosenblatt said. "It's a
| community effect."
|
| This fits with my model of how high levels of cooperation succeed
| in biology. Even in a community as homogeneous as cells you have
| the risk of defectors (cancer), or just poor members. As such you
| need a process to continually test your community members.
| FranklinJabar wrote:
| Why not simply say electricity?
| ggm wrote:
| You're rght. Light? thats just EMF. Infra Red? Emf. Xrays? It's
| all EMF man.
|
| At least thats ITU regulated frequency bands. I wonder if the
| ITU regulates biogenic DC signalling frequencies?
| skyberrys wrote:
| The article notes that bioelectricity is just referring to
| electricity not occuring in the heart or brain which has a
| different specialized name. Simply saying electricity is
| captures more than the cell types reported on.
| FranklinJabar wrote:
| So this is sort of.. environmentally available electrical
| potential in the cell? Or is it more constrained than the
| venues from the heart and the cell to other specific venues?
| nosianu wrote:
| Because that is useless? The physical phenomenon is so very,
| very different in biological systems compared to the metal-wire
| electricity our electrical devices are based on that they are
| entirely different things.
|
| For example, charge carriers are electrons in metal wires vs.
| ions in biological systems. That has huge implications, because
| moving around ions is a lot harder, and slower.
|
| In a metal wire the electrical field is established from
| beginning to the end, and that means that the electrons at the
| end start moving at pretty much the same time as the ones at
| the other end, no matter how long the wire. That means in a
| metal wire signals move at a significant fraction of the speed
| of light in a vacuum, because it is the speed of the electrical
| field and not that of the charge carriers that matters.
|
| In a biological system electrical fields are _tiny_! The way
| the signal propagates in an axon is much more cumbersome,
| expensive, and slow. Speed of signal propagation is ca. 1 /2 to
| at most 100 m/s (for thick myelinated axons). The signal is
| propagated by jumping in very tiny steps along the axon's inner
| surface. (https://youtu.be/tOTYO5WrXFU)
|
| This also makes The Matrix movies' main premise about humans as
| batteries a little strange: Sure, there's lots of electrical
| activity, but it is in trillions of very tiny places across
| nanometer distances. And it is created by moving ions around
| (at great energy cost).
|
| So anyway, what actually physically happens in an electrical
| grid of metal wires, or in a biological system are vastly
| different things. It is not the same "electricity", the only
| thing they have in common is that electrical fields and charge
| carriers (but different ones) are involved. But the way it is
| structured, created, propagated is entirely different in both
| cases.
|
| When I asked Google out of curiosity what it had to say it
| showed this:
|
| > Despite their differences, both are fundamentally, at their
| core, the movement of charged particles driven by electrical
| potential differences.
|
| This is just not correct! The "the movement of charged
| particles" part specifically. Again, wires have one electrical
| field, but in biological systems propagation is entirely
| different, and slow, and expensive! The methods used to
| propagate a signal are not even remotely comparable. That's a
| difference not even a Radio Yerevan joke could make use of.
| carolosf wrote:
| I think in the original story of the Matrix humans were not
| batteries but meant to be used as biological GPUs for the
| machines to run upon. The studio felt that this idea might be
| too confusing in 1999. So that's why Morpheus holds up a
| battery.
| runlaszlorun wrote:
| Oh wow. That's far less ridiculous a notion.
| GordonS wrote:
| This is very informative - just wanted to say thanks!
| bitwize wrote:
| Yes, but how do they handle Byzantine fault tolerance?
| taneq wrote:
| T-cells. :P
| jeffybefffy519 wrote:
| Could this lead into how there are people who thing non ionising
| radiation sources affect them?
| nandomrumber wrote:
| One acquaintance, after years of trying to work out what was
| wrong and believing EM missions may play a role turned out to
| have hemochromotosis (genetic disorder characterized by
| excessive intestinal absorption of dietary iron, resulting in a
| pathological increase in total body iron) which is fixed by
| regular blood donations.
| Noaidi wrote:
| You're making an assumption here that it was not the
| increased iron in her body that made them more sensitive to
| electromagnetic fields. I mean, I'm not saying it's true or
| not, but that's the mistake you're making in your argument.
|
| I think many people who don't have EMF sensitivity find EMFs
| something easy to say is the cause their health issues, but
| they approach how to figure it out if it is true with zero
| scientific thought.
| Noaidi wrote:
| Yes, I think it is. And I am one of these people who are
| sensitive to electromagnetic fields. Both radio frequency and
| lower frequency magnetic and electric fields.
|
| No, I'm not running around with a tinfoil hat on thinking that
| it's going to kill me, but it does cause me, insomnia,
| nightmares, and a worsening of my mood disorder.
|
| The problem is since voltage gated ion channels are also
| associated with mood disorders[1] and are, I believe, how EMF's
| effect certain people, then it's easy to play our sensitivity
| off as just our mood disorder.
|
| [1] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3646240/
| 1718627440 wrote:
| I mean you are essentially projecting energy somewhere. Of
| course it causes something. The availability of a different
| level of energy changes chemical balances and reactions. It can
| also trigger some sensors or effectors. It might also just
| temporarily increase the temperature, but trigger nothing else.
| Torkel wrote:
| Here's a study from 2023 where they apply external electricity to
| improve healing rate of wounds:
|
| https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2023/LC/D2LC0...
|
| It enabled healing of diabetic wounds that are otherwise hard to
| heal.
| inshard wrote:
| Michael Levine really opened my mind to phase space in biology.
| mjanx123 wrote:
| Electricity is the core of a single cell functionality as well,
| most biomolecules are on the exact boundary between a conductor
| and an insulator (and likely switch the state based on other
| molecules binding, pH, etc). A group of cells electricity is a
| higher level abstraction of that.
|
| https://medium.com/the-physics-arxiv-blog/the-origin-of-life...
| pyaamb wrote:
| makes me wonder what effect a low current flowing through the
| body would have on this process. would it hinder/disrupt this
| coordination?
| xg15 wrote:
| The article describes the mechanism in some detail near the
| end. As I understand it, it's not really "coordination" in the
| sense that they exchange messages through the electricity.
|
| It's more that every cell has to maintain a voltage difference
| between the inside and outside ("membrane potential"). A
| healthy cell does that constantly using "ion pumps" that use
| chemical energy (ATP) to increase the potential.
|
| If that potential falls below a certain threshold, certain
| molecular mechanisms (voltage-sensitive ion channels) inside
| the cell are triggered that lead to ejection.
|
| Interestingly, are also other mechanisms (pressure-sensitive
| ion channels) that will "intentionally" make it harder for a
| cell to maintain its potential if it's already weakened or if
| the surrounding region is very crowded.
|
| As such, I think the effect of current would depend on the way
| how it would change the voltage differences of the individual
| cells.
| manmal wrote:
| I wonder what the role of inflammation in all this is. It
| must be a major disrupter (or the effect?) of such electrical
| comms, with all these cytokines and fluid influx changing
| things around.
| nprateem wrote:
| It'll blow their minds when they start researching chi kung and
| realise it's possible to draw in more energy by breathing and
| move it round the body. It's also possible to feel some kind of
| field around the body.
|
| Auras and chakras don't sound so silly now do they.
| Terr_ wrote:
| "It'll blow those Chemists' minds when they start researching
| Alchemy and they realize the incredible power of mercury and
| lead to rejuvenate the body and lead to an elixir of youth!"
|
| "It'll blow those Astronomers' minds when they start
| researching Astrology and the powerful effect of being born
| under auspicious constellations!"
|
| __________
|
| If the ancient guru knowledge is so great, what _testable
| predictions_ does it offer, where "auras" are a causal
| mechanism?
|
| In other words, not: "Thou must intake the golden aura of oats
| and fiber by eating some, to counter the dark brown blockage of
| your Pu-point." The folk remedy might well solve your
| constipation, but it wouldn't be evidence for the mythology
| around it.
| djtango wrote:
| It feels really great to wield the scientific method and feel
| supercilious to all other people and ideas that do not arise
| from such infallible reasoning, and sure the progress of
| humanity hockey sticked since empiricism took hold. But let's
| not forget that empiricism is limited by what we
| can/want/think to measure.
|
| Like it's pretty well accepted that breathing exercises have
| physiological and mental health benefits but it took decades
| of consumerist appropriation of yoga and other techniques
| before academia properly found the motivation to earnestly
| investigate that yes breathing exercises are indeed good for
| you.
|
| As someone who is a deep practitioner of martial arts and
| athletics, if the metaphors of qi gong and yoga were purely
| powerful visualisation aids that already provides more than
| enough tangible benefit. I don't need scientists to tell me
| that qi is good for my body - I can feel it.
|
| So let's keep an open mind, our ancestors were anything but
| idiots.
| ben_w wrote:
| > So let's keep an open mind, our ancestors were anything
| but idiots.
|
| Just not so open our brains fall out.
|
| Our ancestors were just like us, but fewer in number and
| inventing things from scratch. Miasma, spontaneous
| generation, Newtonian gravity, these were not people being
| idiots, and even though they have been shown to be wrong
| they are still close enough to still be useful today.
| Phlogiston also wasn't idiotic, but lacks utility vs being
| correct about oxygen.
|
| One of the shared ways we failed then and now is that what
| sounds true isn't the same as what is true; the modern easy
| example of this is how easily many of us get fooled by
| LLMs, and I suspect that's how a lot of ancient religions
| grew, with additions and copy-errors evolving them to be
| maximally plausible-sounding to a human mind.
| nprateem wrote:
| Proper hatha yoga (not the modern hijacked nonsense) is
| literally a predictive method to experience deeper aspects of
| oneself, one part of which is a greater sensitivity to energy
| movements and corresponding fields.
|
| There is already western research on kundalini, the most
| potent example of bioelectrical energy, and changes in energy
| potential experienced by meditators. Not to mention countless
| empirical self-reports (upon which a good scientist would
| keep an open mind).
|
| But don't let facts get in the way of your prejudices.
| Angostura wrote:
| > is literally a predictive method to experience deeper
| aspects of oneself, one part of which is a greater
| sensitivity to energy movements and corresponding fields.
|
| What does it _actually_ predict? What measureable
| predictions can be tested?
| nprateem wrote:
| That it will trigger this:
| https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35846598/
|
| I know a lot of people here like to believe Western
| science knows everything, but fortunately there's still a
| lot left to discover.
| fooker wrote:
| Words have meaning, don't write random things about a topic
| you don't understand because of cultural pride. What you
| have written is nonsense and demeans hatha yoga, among
| other things.
|
| > predictive method
|
| No
|
| > corresponding fields
|
| What field? Corresponding to what?
|
| > changes in energy potential experienced by meditators
|
| Link to mentioned research?
| nprateem wrote:
| Lol. You'll want to learn what an electromagnetic field
| is.
|
| https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31249516/
|
| Welcome.
| krackers wrote:
| I think it's worth taking the results seriously but not
| the proposed mechanism literally. Equating an internal
| feeling which is loosely referred to as a form of
| "energy" with physical electricity/bioelectricity would
| be a mistake. Of course all sensations are indirectly the
| result of nerve impulses and bioelectricity, but you
| wouldn't say that someone experiencing tingles of say
| ASMR has literally received "energy".
|
| It may turn out that you can consciously influence
| bioelectricity on certain levels (I mean you can
| certainly control motor functions, maybe you can modulate
| the current of injury [1] by thinking about a body
| part?). But you need to be clear about the level of
| abstraction: when you feel a pit in your stomach are you
| going to literally attribute this to "clogged energy in
| your lower dantian", at the chemical level of increased
| norepinephrine and reduced blood flow to your stomach, or
| simply as a result of your emotions and anxieties at the
| moment?
|
| A less fanciful way to say "experience deeper aspects of
| oneself, one part of which is a greater sensitivity to
| energy movements and corresponding fields" might simply
| be "greater sensitivity to emotion and bodily awareness".
| People do the same thing with therapy, discovering
| emotional/mental baggage they'd been carrying for a long
| time, and parts of the body they had been unconsciously
| tensing.
|
| When everything in our body is meditated by impulses and
| electricity, saying that you're "becoming more attuned to
| energy" can be technically true but a functionally
| useless abstraction. You can equally say "more attuned to
| chemical fluctuations in your brain/body" or "more
| attuned to homeostasis disruptions". Maybe in the past
| they didn't have the vocabulary to distinguish these
| levels of abstraction, but today we do. (And Michael
| Levin's work is showing that we've actually been
| underpaying attention to the bioelectric). This is the
| same way that the "theory of humors" sort of makes sense
| on a metaphorical level but it falls apart in a literal
| sense.
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Current_of_injury
| an0malous wrote:
| Where can one learn proper hatha yoga?
| nprateem wrote:
| 8limbs.com. Gregor Maehle has written some excellent
| books and has some good on-demand courses.
|
| Also the free lessons on aypsite.org
| fooker wrote:
| > Alchemy and they realize the incredible power of mercury
|
| They were just a few centuries too early!
|
| https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/nuclear-
| fusion...
| nandomrumber wrote:
| The Alchemists were right, just not _ambitious enough_.
|
| If they'd've started with turning hydrogen in to gold
| they'd've had more success, and we'd be a space fairing
| species by now.
| fooker wrote:
| Step 1: yeet mercury into a mini sun.
|
| If this actually works, I'm going to be convinced that
| some alchemist overheard an alien dude talking about this
| but misinterpreted it in line with contemporary
| knowledge.
| ben_w wrote:
| It does work, but nobody really cares because of all the
| radiation involved.
|
| Here's a paper, but given the date I have no idea if it
| was written by humans or by AI:
| https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.13461
| fooker wrote:
| Seems the radiation goes away in a decade or so, not a
| huge amount of time in the grand scheme of things.
|
| And I guess irradiated gold or a weird gold isotope would
| be just fine for putting in electronics that is meant to
| go beyond low earth orbit.
| runlaszlorun wrote:
| It's not their fault, they didn't have lean startup and
| blitz scaling yet. </s>
| ben_w wrote:
| > possible to draw in more energy by breathing and move it
| round the body
|
| We already know what haemoglobin is thanks
| an0malous wrote:
| I agree, I think we're rediscovering the life force:
| https://labyrinths.xyz/posts/yuga-cycles-and-the-life-force
|
| To me the most interesting part of Levin's research is that
| they can convince cells to grow two arms, two tails, etc. and
| when they cut off the two tails, it grows back with two tails.
| This is without any genetic changes, so where is the
| information being stored?
|
| Likewise there's research that butterflies can be taught to
| have aversions to certain chemicals or smells in the
| caterpillar state, and they continue to have those aversions in
| the butterfly state even though they're entire body becomes a
| chemical soup during the chrysalis stage. Where is that
| behavioral information being stored if not neurons?
|
| I think this is pointing to a discover that's much more
| profound than the body using electricity in interesting ways. I
| think it's pointing to a new force or new aspect of
| electromagnetism that hasn't been discovered yet.
| jupiterelastica wrote:
| For those interested in more details and quite mind blowing
| examples, here is a fascinating interview with Michael Levin (one
| of the researchers mentioned in the article).
|
| https://youtu.be/c8iFtaltX-s?t=4751
|
| Start at 1:19:11, the stuff before is him talking about biology,
| but from an intelligence perspective. After this time stamp is
| his retrospective on his bioelectricity research over the years,
| showing also examples of how they got a frog embryo to produce
| eyes, and many more things.
| joel_liu wrote:
| Thanks for sharing this timestamp - Levin's retrospective on
| bioelectricity research is compelling. What fascinates me most
| is how his work challenges the gene-centric view of
| development. The experiments showing bioelectric patterns can
| override genetic instructions (like inducing eye formation in
| non-eye tissue) reveal a whole layer of morphogenetic
| information we're just beginning to understand.
| nandomrumber wrote:
| I don't believe genetics ever claimed to provide a theory of
| why eyes grow where eyes grow.
|
| The cells in your eyes have exactly the same DNA as the cells
| in your big toe, so developmental morphology cannot be
| explained with DNA alone.
| mojosam wrote:
| > I don't believe genetics ever claimed to provide a theory
| of why eyes grow where eyes grow.
|
| That's the whole point of developmental biology, to show
| how features of the human body form and develop based on
| gene expression, the timing of which during embryonic and
| fetal development itself is dictated by your genes.
|
| If not your genes, what else would determine why you have
| eyes in about the same place in your head as every other
| human?
|
| > The cells in your eyes have exactly the same DNA as the
| cells in your big toe, so developmental morphology cannot
| be explained with DNA alone.
|
| Sure it can, because while every cell has essentially the
| same DNA, the expression of genes differs between cells,
| which is what causes cells to differentiate. And this
| differentiation also controls development; look up the Hox
| genes as an example.
| zmgsabst wrote:
| Your last paragraph is their point: genes are regulated
| to produce that effect. The genes themselves aren't doing
| it, but eg diffusion of chemical signals to inactivate
| genes.
|
| Morphology is determined by the combination of genes,
| chemical signals, original cell machinery, and apparently
| electrical signals. But we never believed that genes
| determined morphology alone, eg, we know that chemical
| signals can cause anomalies.
| mmooss wrote:
| > Morphology is determined by the combination of genes,
| chemical signals, original cell machinery, and apparently
| electrical signals. But we never believed that genes
| determined morphology alone, eg, we know that chemical
| signals can cause anomalies.
|
| For the consistent parts - eyes may be different colors
| but are overwhelmingly consistent - what else could be
| the ultimate cause but DNA? For example, if those
| chemical signals, cell machinary, and electrical signals
| produce the same results billions of times over 200,000
| years, then they must function the same overall. How does
| that happen if the chemical signals, cell machinary, and
| electrical signals aren't determined, even if indirectly,
| by DNA?
| zmgsabst wrote:
| An example of the contrary:
|
| Your eyes would be misplaced if the process from cell
| clump to mat to tubule failed due to chemical signaling
| failure, but the whole embryo tends to be spontaneously
| aborted when gestation fails so catastrophically.
|
| And despite genitalia being roughly one of two forms and
| similarly positioned, chemical signals can disrupt their
| formation.
|
| > How does that happen if the chemical signals, cell
| machinary, and electrical signals aren't determined, even
| if indirectly, by DNA?
|
| They don't produce the same results with perfect accuracy
| -- 75% of pregnancies are spontaneously aborted, at least
| in part due to developmental failures.
|
| But the problem with this argument is simple: you have a
| human cell everywhere you have human DNA, so those
| correlations with DNA are also correlations with cellular
| machinery and with particular chemical signals from the
| mother. There was no point in those 200,000 years where
| DNA operated independently of those other mechanisms --
| we can only say the system as a whole reliably creates
| those features.
| mmooss wrote:
| Interesting points, especially about the challenge of
| correlation. I guess we could remove DNA and see what
| happens ...
|
| Somehow the machinary is passed down: Do we know of
| another mechanism besides DNA that is self-perpetuating?
| Is there any living creature without it? Prokaryotes
| (bacteria) even have DNA.
|
| Or is there a way to do it without self-perpetuating
| mechanisms? Is that logically possible? Some machinary
| might be perpetuated by other machinary, e.g. the
| chemical might recreate the electrical, meaning it's not
| _self_ -perpetuating. But that's not different than DNA:
| DNA itself isn't the machinary, but its self-perpetuation
| is what recreates other parts.
|
| I suppose some parts of the environment are consistent,
| such as sunlight, air, water, and heat, but the
| environmental stimuli must trigger something that is
| already there.
| kevlened wrote:
| He's changed wild-type planarians to grow the heads of
| other species. It reverts after a few weeks, because the
| system has error-correcting mechanisms, but the DNA of
| these worms is unchanged.
|
| He once compared tinkering with DNA as pulling out a
| soldering iron to fix a software bug.
|
| In the case of morphology, DNA may not be the best level
| of abstraction. It's certainly possible, just as one can
| use chemistry for social problems, but for some problems,
| affecting cell-to-cell communication may be a more direct
| path.
| mmooss wrote:
| > If not your genes, what else would determine why you
| have eyes in about the same place in your head as every
| other human?
|
| Theoretically, it could be second or much higher order
| effects that result from genes. It could be a combination
| of complex factors - the environment in the womb,
| nutrition, behavior by the mother, etc. - that eventually
| trace back to DNA.
|
| Also, is it literally true that DNA is the only thing
| that's consistent (in these respects) between all
| generations of Homo sapiens?
| RaftPeople wrote:
| > _The cells in your eyes have exactly the same DNA as the
| cells in your big toe_
|
| Is that true?
|
| I know that cells in the brain have significant variability
| in DNA, but not really aware of what non-neuronal and non-
| brain cells in general typically have.
| arrosenberg wrote:
| Every cell in your body (excepting red blood cells) has a
| complete copy of your genome. What differs is which
| portions are activated.
| jnpnj wrote:
| Great link, he also discusses the start of his lab. The
| discovery of bioelectricity induced eye "modeling" was ..kinda
| crazy.
|
| Also, I've been trying to find people to discuss this, so I set
| up a discord server:
|
| https://discord.gg/gdaSgDgC5y
|
| if anyone is interest (note: i'm just a software engineer, not
| in biomedicine or bioelectricity yet). if there are already
| long running discord servers then i'd rather join these instead
| :)
| seanclayton wrote:
| Just want to say, the "stuff" before is absolutely necessary
| groundwork to even begin comprehending the implications.
| zkmon wrote:
| It was known for a long time that some reflexes and responses are
| mostly spontaneous and don't require decisions from the mind.
| Such reactions, such as pulling away when touched a hot surface,
| do require muscle contraction which in turn requires electrical
| pulses, which indicates the presence of bio electrical charges
| everywhere. Can some help me understand what exactly is new here.
| I knew that something is new.
| Angostura wrote:
| What you are talking about is the functional use of electrical
| impulses to active muscle. This article is talking about
| electrical potential as signalling mechanism for cell health,
| than can be used by a tissue to eject aging or sick cells
| gus_massa wrote:
| Thats https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Withdrawal_reflex
|
| The "decition" is made by the spinal cord. It's not surprising
| if you imagine that the brain is an oversized part of the
| spinal cord.
|
| See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganglion
| MichaelZuo wrote:
| If it's known some kind of decision making, so to speak, was
| happening via electrical signals in the spinal cord... why is
| it suprising that it happens in other types of cells too?
| gus_massa wrote:
| Neurons can do more operations than normal cells.
|
| If I can make a bad approximation:
|
| * Making circuits with normal cells is like making circuits
| with resistors and capacitors.
|
| * Making circuits with neurons is like adding transistors
| to the mix.
|
| (Please don't take this analogy too seriously, probably
| biologist and electricians are writing angry replies now.)
| mbeex wrote:
| From a layman's perspective, another interesting (somewhat
| related?) example of a long-range effect that is not determined
| by neurons themselves (also a recent Quanta article:
| https://www.quantamagazine.org/once-thought-to-support-neuro...)
| Noaidi wrote:
| People can read these articles and go oh cool, but then in the
| same breath they will say radio frequency electromagnetic fields
| have no effect on human health.
| azan_ wrote:
| It's because this article does not show that radio frequency
| electromagnetic fields have effect on human health.
| Noaidi wrote:
| That's because you have to read more than what you read on
| hacker news.
|
| https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11298025/
| mojosam wrote:
| This is classic Quanta Magazine sensationalism. Here's what the
| study actually said:
|
| As cells in epithelial tissue get crowded, their membranes start
| to allow more sodium ions to enter, which makes the cell more
| electrically positive (depolarization). The cells try to counter
| this, but cells with insufficient stored energy (ATP) will
| struggle to do so, and will lose water through their membranes,
| causing them to shrink, which causes them to signal their
| neighbors to extrude them.
|
| So there's no "group decisions" being made, no "coordination"
| between cells using "bioelectricity". Yes, all cells rely on
| electrical potentials across their membranes for normal
| functioning, potentials that they have to maintain. That's all
| the involvement of electricity here.
|
| And the only "decision-making" happening here is within a single
| cell, but of course cells don't "make decisions', cells are
| little machines, and part of the mechanism for epithelial cells
| -- a mechanism that works in part using chemistry and electricity
| -- includes the cell signaling that it needs to be extruded in
| certain circumstances, like shrinkage.
| pinnochio wrote:
| This is correct.
| avonmach wrote:
| Reminds me of Lakhovsky's book, The Secret of Life
| jnaz343 wrote:
| It reminds me of Biologically Closed Electric Circuits - Bjorn
| Nordenstrom https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKXH_4PNPcQ
| avonmach wrote:
| Interesting, thanks for sharing this
| simmanian wrote:
| Michael Levin's ontology (that the body basically acts as
| pointers to the mind in Platonic Realm) is so crazy that I want
| it to be true.
| mmooss wrote:
| Very interesting. Does Levin talk about the Platonic aspects
| directly? Where can I read about it?
| jmcmichael wrote:
| Yes, he discusses the Platonic aspects of his theory in a
| paper, "Ingressing Minds: Causal Patterns Beyond Genetics and
| Environment in Natural, Synthetic, and Hybrid Embodiments":
|
| https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/5g2xj_v1
| m-a-t-t-i wrote:
| Here is a page that collects material related to the Platonic
| space: https://thoughtforms.life/symposium-on-the-platonic-
| space/
| simmanian wrote:
| I find the Q&As on his personal blog the most accessible way
| to grasp his views: https://thoughtforms.life/qa-from-the-
| internet-and-recent-pr...
| xaedes wrote:
| Robert O. Becker also studied this. His book "The Body Electric"
| (1985) was quite interesting. Nice to see some more recent
| research into this topic.
| mannyv wrote:
| What was striking was how much of the cell's energy is spent
| maintaining that voltage. 25% is a lot.
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