This episode is with Lee Cronin. He is the Regius Chair of Chemistry in the School of Chemistry at the University of Glasgow. He and his team are trying to make artificial life forms, find alien life, explore the digitization of chemistry, understand how information can be encoded into chemicals and construct chemical computers. In this conversation we talk about topics related to origin of life, framework to build life from inorganic material, assembly theory, Darwinian evolution, and alien life.

Guest info:

Website: https://www.chem.gla.ac.uk/cronin/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/leecronin?s=20

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Timestamps:

00:00:00 Introduction

00:00:59 Lee's point of view of origin of life research

00:02:24 Are there different scales in chemistry of origin of life?

00:04:01 Framework to build life

00:06:57 Theory of life

00:12:06 Can darwinian evolution works beyond at the chemical level?

00:15:59 Fundamental level of selection

00:22:04 Memories of compounds

00:22:42 Assembly theory

00:24:51 Multiverse

00:28:05 Why haven't we managed to build life so far?

00:31:33 How to use automation to build life?

00:36:33 What is essence of life?

00:39:03 Why do we have life only on earth in our solar system?

00:39:33 Experiment to build life

00:40:33 What will be the information of artificial life?

00:41:19 Chemputer

00:44:38 3D printing life forms

00:49:07 How to identify alien life?

00:50:22 Explanation of assembly theory

00:54:22 How to differentiate alien organic or inorganic matter?

00:58:12 Selection at artificial cells

01:02:45 Thank you!