The Quanta Podcast What Can a Cell Remember?
42 snips
Oct 7, 2025 
Claire L. Evans, a science writer for Quanta Magazine and musician in YACHT, dives into the fascinating world of cellular memory. She challenges traditional views by discussing how memory can exist beyond the brain in organisms like slime molds and bacteria. Claire shares groundbreaking research on unicellular memory, highlighting experiences of learning in single cells. The conversation also explores the evolutionary implications of this memory and the unknown mechanisms driving it. Claire advocates for embracing ambiguity in scientific definitions and encourages interdisciplinary dialogue.
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Memory Beyond The Brain
- Memory need not be confined to brains; single cells and unicellular organisms can retain past experiences.
- This reframes memory as a broader biological and physical phenomenon, not only neural wiring.
Memory As A Physical Phenomenon
- Sam Gershman argues memory is a physical phenomenon: any medium that preserves information across time counts as memory.
- This view expands memory to include tattoos, scars, vaccinations, and physical traces.
Jennings' Stentor Dye Experiments
- Herbert Spencer Jennings tested the ciliate Stentor roeseli by squirting it with dye and observing escalating responses.
- The organism progressed through avoidance, spitting, shrinking, then swimming away, implying memory-like decision making.
