The Information Theory of Biology & Origins of Life with Sara Imari Walker (Big Biology Podcast Crossover)

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Aug 12, 2020

Guest Sara Imari Walker discusses the information theory of biology and origins of life. Topics include the relation between information, matter, and energy, the search for a fundamental understanding of life, the emergence of life on Earth, the role of information in defining life's principles, the challenges of reductionism in biology, self-replication theories, major transitions in biology linked to information processing, and the interconnectedness of life as a system from biology to AI.

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INSIGHT

Information and Life

Study living things to understand information's role in the physical world.
Life's origins mark a transition where information begins controlling system dynamics.

INSIGHT

Early Life's History

Earliest fossil evidence suggests complex life existed 3.8 billion years ago.
The exact timing and environment of life's emergence remain speculative.

INSIGHT

LUCA and Early Life

All life on Earth shares the same core biochemistry, indicating a last universal common ancestor (LUCA).
LUCA likely existed as a community of cells with horizontal gene transfer.

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One of the defining characteristics of complex systems science is the shift in emphasis from objects to relationships and processes. How is information related to matter and energy, and how do the distinct formulations of different scientific lineages braid together in a unifying pattern? This search for a more fundamental understanding drives directly into some of the biggest questions science has to ask about the living world — namely, what is life, what is alive, and when did life begin? The Santa Fe Institute has drawn from the deep wells of these questions since the 1980s. In our second episode, Complexity Podcast dove in to explore the origins of life, but even that in-depth conversation left a lot unsaid.

Welcome to Complexity, the official podcast of the Santa Fe Institute. I’m your host, Michael Garfield. While we continue our short summer hiatus, here’s a superb interview with the Santa Fe Institute’s newly announced External Professor, Sara Imari Walker of Arizona State University, by Marty Martin and Art Woods, the hosts of the Big Biology Podcast. In this rapid-fire rap from their ninth episode, Sara talks about how physics — and in particular information theory — refocuses the lens through which researchers ask about the nature of living systems and look for signs of life elsewhere in the cosmos. We hope that you enjoy and — after subscribing to Complexity and Big Biology wherever you go for podcasts — follow up with their equally illuminating conversation with SFI External Professor Andy Dobson on disease ecology.

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Sara Walker’s Website

Sara Walker's Google Scholar Page

Complexity Podcast Episode 2 on The Origins of Life at InterPlanetary Festival

Big Biology Podcast Website

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