What is Life? - with Paul Nurse

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  • čas přidán 8. 05. 2024
  • Living things are extraordinary and our quest to define life is one of the most fundamental questions in biology.
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    Watch the Q&A: • Q&A: What is Life? - W...
    Sir Paul Nurse is a geneticist and cell biologist whose discoveries have helped to explain how the cell controls its cycle of growth and division. Working in fission yeast, he showed that the cdc2 gene encodes a protein kinase, which ensures the cell is ready to copy its DNA and divide. Paul’s findings have broader significance since errors in cell growth and division may lead to cancer and other serious diseases. He was awarded the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, alongside Tim Hunt and Leland H. Hartwell.
    This Discourse was filmed in the Ri on 25 October 2019.
    ---
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Komentáře • 710

  • @MilesDavisKDAB
    @MilesDavisKDAB Před 4 lety +56

    Paul was one of my tutors when he was just a post- doc researcher. He was/is a lovely man as well as being a very good scientist.

    • @StaringCompetition
      @StaringCompetition Před 4 lety

      Miles Davis I clicked on this one bc he reminded me of a nice teacher lol and I was thinking I bet students like this guy

    • @pansepot1490
      @pansepot1490 Před 4 lety +2

      He looks a character out of a Christmas tale! 😁 A hobbit, elf or something like that. Perhaps because of his round nose and red cheeks. Btw no offense meant.

    • @laurenth7187
      @laurenth7187 Před 2 lety

      And a not so good philosopher

    • @MilesDavisKDAB
      @MilesDavisKDAB Před 2 lety +1

      @@laurenth7187 Is it possible to be a good philosopher?

    • @laurenth7187
      @laurenth7187 Před 2 lety

      @@MilesDavisKDABIt's difficult, i know only one living, myself. So yes for scientists it's hard because they didn't study phil, so no background.

  • @zetacrucis681
    @zetacrucis681 Před 4 lety +9

    Paul Nurse is always a pleasure. Thank you RI!

  • @bouncybounce4589
    @bouncybounce4589 Před 4 lety +16

    What a remarkable lecture. Incredible that he was able to lay out all the principles of life, in such detail and clarity, considering the complexity, in just an hour. Bravo, Paul Nurse!

  • @toni4729
    @toni4729 Před 2 lety +8

    This was the most interesting talk I've ever had the privilege to hear. Thank you very much Paul. Please, let us hear more.

  • @krishiprasad1730
    @krishiprasad1730 Před 3 lety +8

    A befitting work which should probably termed Masterpiece.
    Hands of to you Mr. Nurse.
    Infinite respect and love from India.

    • @healthyone100
      @healthyone100 Před 2 lety

      you probably don't really know what love is!

  • @hopegold883
    @hopegold883 Před 4 lety +51

    Unusually well-written as well typically informative. The structure illustrates the content.
    So glad I clicked! Usually I’m more drawn to the physics ones.
    But then it is!

  • @stephanieparker1250
    @stephanieparker1250 Před 2 lety +26

    Wow, brilliant lecture, well done! Even with only a few simple slides and reading from paper notes stapled together instead of a fancy laptop, he delivered a hugely informative and fascinating presentation. 🙌

  • @asrmail2009
    @asrmail2009 Před 2 lety

    Brilliant exposition. Thank you for posting this.

  • @kevinshort3943
    @kevinshort3943 Před 4 lety +42

    "Life, don't talk to me about life" -- Marvin

    • @MilesDavisKDAB
      @MilesDavisKDAB Před 4 lety +1

      Here I am, brain the size of a planet....

    • @kevconn441
      @kevconn441 Před 4 lety +2

      "The first million years were the worst"

    • @kevinshort3943
      @kevinshort3943 Před 4 lety +3

      @@kevconn441
      “The first ten million years were the worst," said Marvin, "and the second ten million years, they were the worst too. The third ten million years I didn't enjoy at all. After that I went into a bit of a decline.”

    • @kevconn441
      @kevconn441 Před 4 lety +1

      @@kevinshort3943 Should have left the quote marks off, I wasn't even close. Thanks for the correction though, always funny.

    • @kevinshort3943
      @kevinshort3943 Před 4 lety +2

      @@kevconn441
      "I wasn't even close"
      Only 9 million years out, I bet you were distracted by those pesky doors :)

  • @j0hnX44
    @j0hnX44 Před 8 měsíci

    Probably one of the best lectures about life I've seen!!

  • @troygarfieldtravels
    @troygarfieldtravels Před 2 lety

    A brilliant instructor and an amazing tie.

  • @Garcia-elf
    @Garcia-elf Před 4 lety +2

    He was awarded an Honoris Causa during my MSc convocation at McGill, June 2017 :)

  • @dominicvijayanand1971
    @dominicvijayanand1971 Před 2 lety

    SIR THANK YOU FOR UNDERSTANDING LIFE AND HELPING US TO APPRICIATE LIFE ON EARTH AND PERHAPS SOMEWHERE ELSE, WE ALL NEED TO RESPECT LIFE . WITH LIFE . IN LIFE THERE IS EVERYTHING ELSE WHATEVER.

  • @baseeraslam436
    @baseeraslam436 Před 3 lety +5

    What an amazing lecture!

  • @sgatea74
    @sgatea74 Před 2 lety

    Science (chemistry/physics) of life at explained at it's best using common sense arguments. Thank you !

  • @OnlineMD
    @OnlineMD Před 2 lety +3

    SUCH a coincidence...I just got done reading his superb book "What Is Life." Sir Paul Nurse has more titles and accomplishments than most authors I've read lately. Five of the chapters in his book have these chapter headings: Cell; Gene; Evolution by Natural Selection; Chemistry, and Information. Next on my reading list is "What Is Life" by Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan.

    • @Doctor_Subtilis
      @Doctor_Subtilis Před 2 lety

      Read lily e Kay's books The molecular vision of life, and who wrote the book of life?
      Brilliant historian of life science if you want to know the serious history

    • @Doctor_Subtilis
      @Doctor_Subtilis Před 2 lety

      Also reading Kay's works will teach you how to fdo book research like a pro if you look into the notes

  • @gondwana6303
    @gondwana6303 Před 4 lety +27

    This is a brilliant framework of principles by Sir Paul on how analyze what is life? Hope it becomes a course that he can teach. The other brilliant scientists such as Schrodinger, Mendel, Darwin and Pasteur are amazing that they could have surmised so much from so little observable things, since they didn't have any of our current sophisticated tools.

    • @Doctor_Subtilis
      @Doctor_Subtilis Před 2 lety

      And Schrodinger's importance in the history of biology is mostly a retcon

    • @lucyhanks500
      @lucyhanks500 Před rokem

      There are these phrases such as ‘What is a faux pas?’ and ‘what is considered as ill manners?’

    • @lucyhanks500
      @lucyhanks500 Před rokem

      @@Doctor_Subtilis then there is ‘what is a community?’

  • @gjovanovic
    @gjovanovic Před 3 lety +3

    For someone who so many times (unnecessarily) emphasizes "without a need for a creator" Sir Paul expresses astonishing admiration for BEAUTY of the building blocks of life :-)

    • @deepstrasz
      @deepstrasz Před 2 lety +1

      So then the universe created itself, then evolved to us who can create within it. If we could create a universe of our own, then we might end up creating an infinite loop. Virtual reality and computers... oh wait...

  • @chrissmith7259
    @chrissmith7259 Před 3 lety +2

    Beautifully explained.

  • @kevinwilliams5873
    @kevinwilliams5873 Před 3 lety +2

    God bless the Royal Institution. Information provided by the informed, without bias, for public consumption. God bless you all.

  • @nipudas1771
    @nipudas1771 Před 2 lety +1

    And now I have watched two interviews regarding this book!

  • @pradnyasaravade8934
    @pradnyasaravade8934 Před rokem

    Totally enlightening! Loved the idea of turning inside out the lifeless information stored in the DNA to the reactive machines-proteins-which do the work. In that case, maybe ribozymes or the ribosomes are the first step to life? Viruses being a case in point-storing only the information without the ability to translate that information as living beings on their own.

  • @TheBoatmad
    @TheBoatmad Před měsícem

    What an awesome talk. If I was still a teacher I would want to share that talk with all my students!

  • @mehdibaghbadran3182
    @mehdibaghbadran3182 Před 2 lety

    Thanks for your explanation on the easy ways.

  • @patrickboudreau3846
    @patrickboudreau3846 Před 2 lety +1

    It is easy to visualise birds evolving but entirely something else to grasp the evolution of molecular machines without whom nothing works anymore. How did particules jump from wave matter duality to agglomerate into what would eventually become the human brain ? Evolution is certainly one of our universe’s most myserious acheivement. Thank you for this lecture. This subject is facinating.

  • @muthuk
    @muthuk Před 4 lety +7

    What an amazing lecture! The amount of fundamentals covered here is just amazing. Learning from first principles, understanding the basics clearly are extremely important...I am glad i watched this! Thank u guys!

    • @muthuk
      @muthuk Před 4 lety

      @@waltermoss7718 ok maybe u can suggest me a couple

  • @mdb1239
    @mdb1239 Před 2 lety +2

    The machines within our cells are living and intelligent entities. Actually visually seeing them at work shows they are alive, reacting to the environment, and making purposeful decisions.

  • @laurenth7187
    @laurenth7187 Před 2 lety +5

    Regarding the principle underlying life, it's amazing that such a knowledgeable person seems to ignore Bichat :
    « La vie, dit-il, est l'ensemble des fonctions qui résistent à la mort. »
    Life is a set of functions resisting to death.

    • @deepstrasz
      @deepstrasz Před 2 lety

      You can't just happen to know everything though. Some things you are bound to miss, many actually.

  • @genghisgalahad8465
    @genghisgalahad8465 Před 4 lety +6

    A wonderfully concise and excellent primer lecture on cellular biology by Paul Nurse! Love the playlists by science topics!

    • @John777Revelation
      @John777Revelation Před 6 měsíci

      DNA is "Coded" and "Digital" Information.
      *_"Language: All Digital communications require a formal language, which in this context consists of all the information that the sender and receiver of the digital communication must both possess, in advance, in order for the communication to be successful."_* (Wikipedia: Digital Data)
      During an interview, when asked if the genetic code is really a code, Dr. Richard Dawkins answered, *_“It [the genetic code] IS a code. It's definitely a code.”_* (Source: Jon Perry - Genetics & Evolution Stated Casually CZcams Channel Interview with Dr. Richard Dawkins on 4-2-2022. Dr. Richard Dawkins is widely regarded as the world’s foremost expert on Darwinian Evolution)
      *_"After Watson and Crick, we know that genes themselves, within their minute internal structure, are long strings of pure digital information. What is more, they are truly digital..."_* (Richard Dawkins, River out of Eden, 16. Dr. Richard Dawkins is widely regarded as the world’s foremost expert on Darwinian Evolution)
      What prebiotically relevant or even modern chemical process has been observed in nature or experimentally demonstrated to be capable of producing coded digital functional information / language?
      Modern scientific discoveries in Genetics (i.e. biology) have shown that functional / coded / digital Information (i.e. DNA code) is at the core of All Biological Systems. Without functional / coded / digital information, there is No biology. The only known source (i.e. cause) in the universe that has been Observed (i.e. Scientific Method) in nature to be capable of producing functional / coded / digital information, such as that found even in the most primitive biological systems, is mind / consciousness / intelligence.

  • @whizkid235
    @whizkid235 Před 3 měsíci

    If only college courses were taught like this… students would be much more excited to study the material.
    For some reason I fully understood and remembered all the small details (names, dates, biochemistry concepts, etc..) in this lecture from listening to it once, and I walk out of my college classes being more confused than before and learning nothing

  • @elsef6798
    @elsef6798 Před 2 lety

    Thank you for this poetic lecture full of insights and knowledge. The importance of the central and final message: to care for all life on this planet, seems too easily overlooked by people in general. I am not sure the science, the data and the understanding is key to solving the problem. In comparison knowing precisely how harmful cigarettes are often does not stop smoking.
    I wonder: what creates caring?

  • @guidobachi952
    @guidobachi952 Před 4 lety +1

    Great lecture ! Thank you very much, Mr. Nurse. I wish you all the best for the future and I am keen to listen to your next lecture! Greetings from Switzerland.

  • @KURDinEXILE
    @KURDinEXILE Před 4 lety

    Beautifully said

  • @mdb1239
    @mdb1239 Před 2 lety

    Visually being able to see the smallest parts/living-machines at work within a cell and it is shocking. The smallest workings in our cells are intelligent and alive. Seeing them at work is astonishing. They are intelligent and alive. Seeing them visually doing their work is a wonderment. This is not just a chemical reaction in a test tube, but living intelligent machines responding to its environment and doing purposeful work.

  • @marioesposito4050
    @marioesposito4050 Před 3 lety

    Amazing lecture!!

  • @santiagomarshall1447
    @santiagomarshall1447 Před 4 lety +10

    I was expecting the George Harrison hit “what is life” but I actually found a great video I will remember for a long time! Thanks

  • @lukekubat3882
    @lukekubat3882 Před 4 lety +52

    The Schrodinger uncertainty principle: “you can never be 100% certain I’m not Heisenberg” :-)

    • @bernardofitzpatrick5403
      @bernardofitzpatrick5403 Před 4 lety +1

      nice one! LOL

    • @theuniques1199
      @theuniques1199 Před 4 lety

      Luke Then you must 100% also believe you are Heisenburg to believe you are 100% not Heisenburg and you must believe you are 100% not Heisenburg to believe you are 100% Heisenburg because you can't have one concept without the other.

    • @doubleirishdutchsandwich4740
      @doubleirishdutchsandwich4740 Před 4 lety +5

      I was listening to this on my way to work and I almost pulled over to leave this comment. How can you get something so fundamentally wrong in your presentation to the royal academy. Not a big deal as to the substance of the presentation, just a tiny hiccup. Schrodinger created the wave equation while Heisenberg created the uncertainty principle. Ugh.

    • @quadlearningstudios1216
      @quadlearningstudios1216 Před 4 lety +5

      Perhaps they climbed into Schrodinger's cat box together and became a Schroberg-Heisendinger superposition...

    • @Sophiedorian0535
      @Sophiedorian0535 Před 4 lety +1

      Strange ... when I am NOT watching this video, it seems like the uncertainty principle is both from Heisenberg and Schrödinger, AT THE SAME TIME!

  • @nonindividual
    @nonindividual Před 2 lety

    What a great lecture.

  • @walkingmap
    @walkingmap Před 4 lety +1

    Very nice lecture, wonderful tie.

  • @therealzilch
    @therealzilch Před rokem

    Nicely done. I would say that it's quixotic to try to define "life" exactly. Order merges imperceptibly with life.

  • @ewigeliebe4690
    @ewigeliebe4690 Před 2 lety

    Life, as WE consider t to be live, is popping out automatically wherever the circunstances are favourable

  • @scottkoshland2475
    @scottkoshland2475 Před 2 lety

    Life must be in terms of information defined as an intelligent sustaining information system. Simply life meets all the definitions of an intelligent system.

  • @avonsternen6034
    @avonsternen6034 Před 7 měsíci +1

    The cell is an organizational functional unit. The efficacy of chemistry is based on its subject, dealing with consistent patterns of relations and interactions. However, describing life in terms of chemicals is like describing a picture in terms of colors. 👍:)

  • @CZorba
    @CZorba Před 2 lety

    Meaning of life => meaning of meaning of live => meaning of meaning of meaning of life .... = factorial meaning of life, a recursive path to go .... ; Thank you for your video

  • @1o1s1s1i1e
    @1o1s1s1i1e Před 4 lety +6

    Fascinating lecture!

  • @safarscience6835
    @safarscience6835 Před 2 lety +11

    Though I was knowing most of the things he was telling because I'm from a plant sciences background.... Still I found this lecture very interesting and I listened very carefully. Thank you so much Ri for uploading this. 🙏

  • @yadibalderlou1443
    @yadibalderlou1443 Před 2 lety +3

    I was expecting a definition from the lecturer for life ,all he gave me was a description of a living things. Not the life itself

  • @haitranb3383
    @haitranb3383 Před 4 lety +5

    So premative, just survived and hopping one day when compassion realised then we must what is life....

  • @Gabrielhlc
    @Gabrielhlc Před 4 lety

    Yeah, we are mechanisms that stores information, after all... But why? I think that life comes to us with a intrisic need to survive, and that is life, we eat to survive, we have kids to survive for us, we make computer to survive our ideas. Its very important thinking about it, because sometimes we are so instinctive for surviving that we start wars, we tend to defend territory and our fake sense of property. Everyone is connected, we need the efforts of every type of life to survive. We need to stop thinking that we are apart of everthing! We have to have faith in ourselfes but most of all we have to have faith in everyone to live better!! Thank you for this awesome time, it opened my mind for a lot of things

    • @deepstrasz
      @deepstrasz Před 2 lety

      We are not apart from everything but we are individual entities within one entity. You can the greed of existence by looking at the deep dark space. Planets have formed, basically, as separate entities, some bigger, some smaller, some solid, some gaseous. So, while the universe might have unity inside in what celestial body and ultimately life form organization is concerned, its constant expansion and separation of galaxies doesn't help this we are all one philosophy. It seems, that what actually stays together and seems likely to win, is entropy.

  • @NeoStoicism
    @NeoStoicism Před 4 lety +6

    The importance of polymers in connecting information to chemical reaction will be an interesting indicator of other life forms as we push further into the universe.

    • @miodragomir
      @miodragomir Před 4 lety +2

      We are not pushing anywhere. Forever bound to tiny Earth.

    • @deepstrasz
      @deepstrasz Před 2 lety

      I think we would have a chance with biophoton detection.

  • @janlang8605
    @janlang8605 Před 3 lety

    Superb lecture!

  • @dave-ux1iu
    @dave-ux1iu Před 4 lety

    thanks,good video lots of information

  • @McLKeith
    @McLKeith Před 4 lety +1

    This a very informative lecture on how cells function. Paul Nurse is very good lecturer. Far better than my first genetics 101 lecturer. But Nurse has not answered the question "What is life?"
    To answer that question, I believe we need an up-to-date Miller-Urey type experiments showing how those chemical reactions got started.

  • @robertopedrosolazzo9324

    Inspiring!

  • @AnkitSingh-xg2uv
    @AnkitSingh-xg2uv Před 10 měsíci

    A very precise lecture but without considering epigenetic control.....

  • @JobANable
    @JobANable Před 2 lety +1

    I kept imagining Robin Williams talking about what is life throughout this talk; that would be hilarious and also very illuminating!

    • @palmbeach4825
      @palmbeach4825 Před 10 měsíci

      Yeah, ame too. I kept thinking about Flubber. The movie with the green blob.😂🟢

  • @Thom3748
    @Thom3748 Před 2 lety

    This is a very well done lecture, and really worth an our of time, but something is missing--the proverbial Elephant in the room. Nurse describes the organization and processes of the cell quite nicely (and in some depth), but he doesn't give any explanation as to what starts the processes, and what drives them. In other words, what is the make up and character of the force behind the most fundamental aspect of biology? What is that life force?

  • @sparky80569
    @sparky80569 Před 3 lety

    Very informative..

  • @StormedX2
    @StormedX2 Před 4 lety +29

    This man looks like 3 people:
    1: Old guy from Up!
    2: Robin Williams
    3: Close relative of Patton Oswalt

    • @stumccabe
      @stumccabe Před 4 lety +3

      4. Alcoholic uncle.

    • @corretorescompartilhados385
      @corretorescompartilhados385 Před 4 lety +2

      5. Ronnie Barker.

    • @furbs9999
      @furbs9999 Před 4 lety

      Can not unsee.

    • @LearningWithSuj
      @LearningWithSuj Před 4 lety +1

      I was about to say Robin Williams and Joe Pesci :)

    • @e-t-y237
      @e-t-y237 Před 4 lety

      fusiform gyrus is good at lookalikes, I have it too and it goes with jumble/unscrambling skillz ... just saying

  • @nyworker
    @nyworker Před 2 lety

    He's so brilliant and so humble and generous in how he simplifies this for us mortals.

  • @leighedwards
    @leighedwards Před 4 lety +1

    Heisenberg formulated the uncertainty principle, Schrodinger gave us wave mechanics with an equation for atomic wavefunctions

  • @caricue
    @caricue Před 2 lety +1

    I'm beginning to think that the reason it is so hard to answer this question, what is life, is because it isn't actually a thing in itself. We see a part of the universe moving around and doing stuff and we call it life, but this is a concept or even a category that we have in our heads. You can say the same about tornadoes or hurricanes. They are self-assembled structures that form due to an energy imbalance, but they are not really a thing. That is why nothing is lost when a whirlwind finally dissipates, because it was never really more than an identity put on it by some human mind. If life is like this, and it seems to be, then the most you can ever do is describe it and work out its dynamics, but you will never really be able to say what it is.

    • @kevinsmith-qj1bz
      @kevinsmith-qj1bz Před 2 lety +1

      This is the most well-reasoned thought on this blog, something that seems to elude even the noble laureate who, I suppose, has been working on the topic for a long time, if not his entire career.

  • @Heart-Core
    @Heart-Core Před 11 měsíci

    ❤Life is movement on itself♥️Movement creates life & time❤️Without movement neither life nor time would exist❤

  • @quinoline3865
    @quinoline3865 Před 4 lety +8

    2:36 Schrodinger was not the guy who discovered uncertainty principle. It was Heisenberg.

    • @kevinshort3943
      @kevinshort3943 Před 4 lety +7

      You tell his cat that ! :)

    • @frhe1970
      @frhe1970 Před 4 lety +3

      Heisenberg did not discover the principle,like you find something that was hidden.He discovered a problem in the way that the basic physical properties of a particle in a quantum system could be measured.Then DEVELOPED the uncertainty principle to explain the problem..

    • @rad858
      @rad858 Před 4 lety

      @@frhe1970 Schrödinger developed Heisenberg's principle into his own much more general uncertainty relation, which is much more useful

    • @quinoline3865
      @quinoline3865 Před 4 lety

      ​@@frhe1970 I meant the same thing. I anticipated somebody is going to nitpick.

    • @bernardofitzpatrick5403
      @bernardofitzpatrick5403 Před 4 lety

      @@rad858 interesting ...

  • @nivlek2538
    @nivlek2538 Před 4 lety

    The "explanation" about life and the second law of thermodynamics seems to be very spurious.

    • @MrWhiteav6
      @MrWhiteav6 Před 4 lety

      Could you elucidate on that?

    • @sallyforth2955
      @sallyforth2955 Před 4 lety

      Nivlek he is really on to something there though. Life requires the evolution of membranes. Saline solution in Cell different from out, creating a pump which must be fueled by electron exchanges, etc. He could have elaborated his point.

    • @davidgould9431
      @davidgould9431 Před 4 lety +2

      I agree. At about 10 minutes in, he said something about the 2nd law of thermodynamics not being a problem because the cell is separated from the environment. This seems arse-about-face to me: the 2nd LoT isn't a problem precisely because the cell *isn't* a closed system and is constantly exchanging materials and energy with the rest of the environment. I suspect he's one of the "old school" of great biologists who weren't so hot on physics (I know: I could google him). Especially given his Schrödinger/Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle whoopsie. Still that's not really why I'm watching, and it's been interesting so far.

  • @qf1150
    @qf1150 Před rokem

    2:42 "Schroedinger, he of the Uncertainty Principle". The Uncertainty Principle was formulated by Werner Heisenberg. Erwin Schroedinger formulated the equation . the wave function of a quantum system.

  • @joqqy8497
    @joqqy8497 Před 5 měsíci

    2:36 Werner Heisenberg formulated the uncertaintly principle, not Schrödinger(whose equation the principle was based upon because of the probabilistic interpretation of it).

  • @daiduongdaviddinh140
    @daiduongdaviddinh140 Před 4 lety +1

    Very academic talk from a very scholastic scientist.

  • @lakesidedave3535
    @lakesidedave3535 Před 7 měsíci

    Remarkable!

  • @jonathanbethune9075
    @jonathanbethune9075 Před 8 měsíci

    I'm am humbled in the presence off our nature.

  • @robertphillips93
    @robertphillips93 Před 2 lety +3

    Such a comprehensive review of biochemistry and really, all current scientific POVs! Alas, the titular question contains a paradox that is not addressed -- namely, what is the role of life in a cosmos that appears to be inanimate? He comes close to this in his summation, noting the interdependence of living organisms -- but apparently the balance of the universe is simply "stuff" . . .

    • @pjsteinsongs
      @pjsteinsongs Před 2 lety

      We may someday understand the pathway from how, from the first RNA strand several billion years ago, to the present moment, we came to be, but there may never be an understandable “role” or “purpose” in nature, other than for living things to make copies of themselves.

    • @robertphillips93
      @robertphillips93 Před 2 lety

      @@pjsteinsongs Can't dispute that -- but it is interesting to note that there can be two very different meanings of "understand". One, as you use it, refers to knowledge and its manipulation. Another is perhaps more personal, bringing the knower's character or state to bear on his knowledge. Think of a great musician engaging an audience, or one who is technically just as proficient but doesn't quite deliver the same experience.

    • @pjsteinsongs
      @pjsteinsongs Před 2 lety

      @@robertphillips93 The musician metaphor is excellent. Can you expand on how this relates to your original comment, i.e., the relationship, if any, between life (the biosphere), and the inanimate cosmos?

    • @robertphillips93
      @robertphillips93 Před 2 lety

      @@pjsteinsongs We study cells and stars with similar instruments and methods. For stars there may be few other options -- but for a certain kind of organism, of our own phenotype, there is another instrument available to us -- the first-hand observation of the inhabitant. It is easy to dismiss such a notion as unscientific fantasy, but it is probably a safer bet that few have tried it because it is extraordinarily difficult and quite possibly dangerous to our comforting notions and preconceptions. Nevertheless, there have been notable examples of those who apparently have done just this.
      One thing to consider that any scientist will agree with -- any valid principles discovered in this way must have a corresponding analogue in the macro world. Laws are everywhere the same -- so this micro-investigation can yield results transferrable on a cosmic scale. Thus, under-standing . . . or, pie in the sky.
      So, is musician A a scientist? Not in the ordinary sense, but he has apparently identified certain "elementals" in his experience and can instinctively or consciously put them in a relationship that (in a repeatable manner) yields a new result. You don't really think "music of the spheres" was the invention of savages?!

    • @pjsteinsongs
      @pjsteinsongs Před 2 lety

      @@robertphillips93 I think that you are suggesting the use of some quality or qualities of subjective experience that may serve as an instrument or gauge of some kind, but different from the observations of a “naturalist”?

  • @jayarava
    @jayarava Před 3 lety +7

    There's really nothing here that I didn't learn at school 40 years ago. The one thing I learned post-school was that symbiosis gave us eukaryote cells and complex life. RIP Lynn Margulis.

    • @michaelawford7325
      @michaelawford7325 Před 2 lety +1

      I achieved A Level Botany and Zoology 60 years ago and found this new and fascinating

  • @thomasbje3843
    @thomasbje3843 Před 3 lety

    A brave man.

  • @patrickm8316
    @patrickm8316 Před 4 lety +12

    For a bit of a fool like me, this talk was a thing of beauty.

  • @vjnt1star
    @vjnt1star Před 4 lety +8

    I am always baffled by the complexity of a cell which is like a factory. It is very hard to imagine that the first cell has been put together by chance

    • @MrWhiteav6
      @MrWhiteav6 Před 4 lety +2

      Who says the first cell was ad complex as a bacteria or eukaryotes? It could be as simple as a micelle.

    • @bremayak
      @bremayak Před 4 lety +1

      I'm with you on this preposterous idea that life accidentally self assembled. Arrogance and vanity seem to blind them to the obvious problem with that world view. There is an airplane junkyard in the middle of nowhere America and not once has a 747 put itself back together again from its pieces.

    • @bremayak
      @bremayak Před 4 lety

      Only a fool can be deceived into thinking that random proteins can magically self assemble into complex DNA and RNA. Especially since there has never been a repeatable experiment done that demonstrates the hypothesis of random self assembly of organisms. If you are so clever and I am so foolish, then please recreate the genesis of complex life in a lab. If this theory were true, everyone on the planet should be able to combine the ingredients needed for life and then magically get these ingredients to become a complex life form. You can't do it, nor can anyone on this planet. It has never happened and will never happen, because it's an incorrect hypothesis. The data does not support the notion that life just happened to happen. Or, put into simple terms that a child can understand - 747s do not build themselves even when all of the pieces are present. Apparently, that analogy is over your head or beyond your cognitive capabilities since you felt the need to attack it.
      Maybe you can get a distinguished biologist to prove that random chemicals and proteins can be brought to life in a lab. If that ever happens, I will rescind my opinion and apologize for my error. I doubt that you will ever prove that but anything is possible.

    • @MrWhiteav6
      @MrWhiteav6 Před 4 lety +5

      @@bremayak so because we dont completely understand abiogenesis, it goes to divine creation by default? Hey, life is crazy, we find it so amazing that we are mystified by it and naturally substantiate its existence due to divine resources. The history of science shows everything has a natural explanation eventually and I dont think abiogenesis is any different.

    • @z42O
      @z42O Před 4 lety +2

      Jesus planted coconuts and that is how you have life on earth Google it lol

  • @walkabout16
    @walkabout16 Před 8 měsíci +2

    In words of wisdom, Paul Nurse did share,
    The core principles of life, a truth so rare,
    Nobel Prize-winner, in science's brilliant glare,
    He unveiled life's secrets, beyond compare.
    Principle one, the heart of all existence,
    Information's flow, a grand persistence,
    Genetic code, in cells it finds its stance,
    Life's blueprint, in every single instance.
    Principle two, diversity's graceful dance,
    Variation's key, in each life's advance,
    Evolution's art, through time's expanse,
    Survival's essence, in nature's romance.
    Principle three, the mighty energy's exchange,
    In every cell, a balance we arrange,
    Metabolism's dance, so intricate and strange,
    Life's spark, in every molecule's change.
    Principle four, the cells, life's building blocks,
    Complexity emerges from simple locks,
    From molecules to tissues, in paradox,
    Life's beauty in cells, where harmony docks.
    Principle five, the generations' thread,
    Reproduction's gift, where life is spread,
    Inheritance's tale, from ancestors led,
    Life's tapestry, in the DNA's spread.
    Paul Nurse, in science's quest profound,
    Unveiled these principles, on fertile ground,
    In Nobel's glory, his knowledge unbound,
    Life's mysteries, in his wisdom found.
    So let us heed these principles five,
    In nature's grandeur, let us derive,
    The essence of life, where mysteries thrive,
    In Paul Nurse's wisdom, let us survive.

    • @manifold1476
      @manifold1476 Před 8 měsíci +1

      I'd guess he made an impression on you.

  • @curtislocus195
    @curtislocus195 Před 5 měsíci

    Thank you

  • @TheThunderSpirit
    @TheThunderSpirit Před 4 lety +2

    Very nice idea of wetwares

  • @james6401
    @james6401 Před 2 lety +2

    Brilliant lecture, thanks. It seems that we often look for a definition of life using micro systems from ourselves down but in reality we reach a difficulty with that approach and end up going macro on our examples. Maybe a forest is alive, maybe humans are part of larger wholes or ecosystems and who knows how far it goes up?

    • @lisaalexander1824
      @lisaalexander1824 Před 2 lety

      Around and around for infinity ?? Every species dies, but maybe other things are created...

  • @antounsemaan
    @antounsemaan Před 2 lety

    Interesting, love it.

  • @SparkBerry
    @SparkBerry Před 4 lety +5

    The biggest question ever posted by RI... My other plans are cancelled for tonight

  • @luckysurfer9097
    @luckysurfer9097 Před 2 lety

    One dimension missing from the lecture....the inputs of life. Sir Paul touched on it with "energy." Do this....make a list of the inputs of life, sun, heat, water, etc. Then remove each one at a time and postulate whether life could exist without it. Could life (a cell) exist without one of the 6 principles? Probably not. I imagine life would be nil without water, so in my opinion, life is more than the 6 principles, the raw materials are another principle. But this is all for the life of a cell...could there be a different life system based on other than carbon polymer chemistry??

  • @anotherindividual5799
    @anotherindividual5799 Před 4 lety +1

    👍🏼 well done

  • @RonTodd-gb1eo
    @RonTodd-gb1eo Před 7 měsíci

    Is the big divide between life and not life or conscious life and not conscious life?

  • @MohamedElsheikh22
    @MohamedElsheikh22 Před 3 lety +2

    Nothing pisses me off more than searching youtube for "what is life" and finding most of search results are about shallow songs.. and it shows this video in the 10th page.
    It shows how shallow our society is

    • @plrndl
      @plrndl Před 2 lety +1

      Has it occurred to you, that you may be looking in the wrong place?

    • @MohamedElsheikh22
      @MohamedElsheikh22 Před 2 lety +1

      @@plrndl Maybe , do you suggest a better place

  • @Orionography
    @Orionography Před 2 lety

    Life is, at it's base layer, the propegation and preservation of information, by information.
    Information is relative to the observer and is of no value unless shared, so by its very nature, is connection.
    Then is life (or even the meaning of it) at its most basic level, connection?

  • @avonsternen6034
    @avonsternen6034 Před 7 měsíci +1

    Nicely done! Nevertheless, essential to a genuine quest for naturally enduring Truth, is not only insight but humility. The latter provides the possibility of Awareness, which gives a field potential meaning beyond information. Without meaningful purpose for humanity, what do science and technology ultimately serve? Scientism, for example the mantra of darwinism, appeals to institutionism more than intuitive understanding, depending more upon superficial structural authority than enlightening appeal.

    • @livethemoment5148
      @livethemoment5148 Před 7 měsíci

      blah blah blah....you are a fool who loves to use woowoo words and says nothing.

  • @richardtendyke3422
    @richardtendyke3422 Před 2 lety

    Two comments, I believe it was Heisenberg and not Schrodinger who developed the uncertainty principle. Second, certainly purpose evolves as a result of evolution, but I think it is a more significant element than that. It is purpose that drives evolution. It is purpose that provides a measure of success for a new birth to succeed and therefore reproduce. This concept of being able to measure the relative value of one option vs. another is the key to be able to create order from disorder. It applies in areas other than life.

  • @user-ew1uo5ev4e
    @user-ew1uo5ev4e Před 2 lety +1

    can’t stop looking at his tie

  • @-_Nuke_-
    @-_Nuke_- Před 4 lety +2

    Life is a very stubborn illusion of our circumstances.
    Either 1) Nothing is life or 2) Everything is.
    At the most fundamental level, everything is nothing more than, quantum indeterminacies on some fundamental mathematical fields.
    (like the EM, Gluon, Higgs fields etc)

    • @terrytibbs
      @terrytibbs Před 4 lety

      lol what

    • @-_Nuke_-
      @-_Nuke_- Před 4 lety

      @@terrytibbs There is no way to distinguish life from non-life
      .
      The Earth itself could be viewed as a living organism and if the Universe is teeming with life, then the entire Universe should be considered a living organism too.
      Or otherwise, since there is no real distinction (down to the fundamental levels of QM) from life and non-life, nothing should be considered "living". We Humans believe that living things have some kind of special property to them (soul) but such thing doesn't exist when we examine their fundamental quantum parts.
      Everything is just a collection of atoms, a rock and a Human brain share no distinction. The laws of physics make the one collection of atoms act as a rock and the other as a human brain.
      Some complicated collection of atoms might look alive (collections of atoms like animals and humans) but they are not, they are just inanimate matter drifted away by the laws of physics. Nothing is really alive.

    • @NetAndyCz
      @NetAndyCz Před 4 lety

      @@-_Nuke_- Just because people do not agree about at which wavelength the light is still red does not mean that the blue life and the red light are the same.

  • @davemmar
    @davemmar Před 2 lety

    These parameters fit well into the earth’s environmental changes. But on another planet, for sample, with no environmental changes there may be no need for evolution or reproduction, etc. This video should not and cannot be the only basis for our search for extraterrestrial intelligence. But this video does make one wonder how fantastic are the differences of life in our universe. And just how soon will we have the ability to connect with the universe’s other self aware entities? I only wish it could happen in my lifetime. Thank you, Paul.

  • @jamesstewart7212
    @jamesstewart7212 Před 3 měsíci

    Professor Nurse talks about the mechanics of life with chemistry but not a word about consciousness. There does not seem to be a chemistry of consciousness as it is never mentioned. Perhaps the driving force behind the chemistry is actually consciousness?

  • @guillermozuluaga5643
    @guillermozuluaga5643 Před 10 měsíci +1

    Machinery, communication, programming, purpose? Yes Dr Nurse: Maybe a computer doesn't need a creator after all. Or, does it?

  • @LindaHerbertson
    @LindaHerbertson Před 2 lety

    Beautiful tie

  • @Sophiedorian0535
    @Sophiedorian0535 Před 4 lety +2

    The uncertainty principle is from Heisenberg, not from Schrödinger, professor.

  • @dalton6173
    @dalton6173 Před 2 lety

    Charles Darwin being famous for the theory of evolution after his grandfather was essentially run out of business for having that idea is kind of an amazing story I mean I do wish that his grandfather would have gotten the credit whenever it was his idea but still inspiring in its own unique way

    • @cdb5001
      @cdb5001 Před 2 lety

      There's a book.coming out this week which contends that Darwin was a fraud and plaigirized everything from contemporary Patrick Matthew. Gonna check it out, sounds pretty interesting.

  • @jprakash7245
    @jprakash7245 Před 2 lety

    Do his(Paul Nurse) documentary of Science Under Attack is available free?!

  • @donk1822
    @donk1822 Před 2 lety

    Cracked me up when he said. 'Science is the art of the soluble', after listening to his lecture I feel he should have said. 'Science is the art of the malleable'.

    • @grmalinda6251
      @grmalinda6251 Před 2 lety

      Life is the ability to respond.

    • @donk1822
      @donk1822 Před 2 lety

      @@grmalinda6251 Certainly all life has that ability Linda, but it is far more complex. Consider, computers respond to our commands, but they do not have life.

    • @grmalinda6251
      @grmalinda6251 Před 2 lety

      @@donk1822 computers dont respond in and of themselves . That's a programmed response.

    • @donk1822
      @donk1822 Před 2 lety

      @@grmalinda6251
      Most of our responses are also programmed into us, be it by instinct, education, or experience. The difference is metabolism.
      We, fauna and flora, are to use a primitive analogy, are like electro chemical capacitors, when we have no capacitance left, we die.

    • @grmalinda6251
      @grmalinda6251 Před rokem

      @@donk1822 sad belief.

  • @howardtaylor9114
    @howardtaylor9114 Před 2 lety

    Superb.

  • @klausgartenstiel4586
    @klausgartenstiel4586 Před 4 lety +13

    "it goes a little bit like this. well, *actually* it goes completely like is."
    you gotta love the british. 😎

    • @Silly.Old.Sisyphus
      @Silly.Old.Sisyphus Před 4 lety

      actually, you gotta hate the British because they hate everyone else - just look how isolationist they are

    • @klausgartenstiel4586
      @klausgartenstiel4586 Před 4 lety +4

      @@Silly.Old.Sisyphus well, i don't know about you, but i don't hate any humans. because in the end, they are not really responsible for what they are.
      i *do* however hate god. *if* he exists.

    • @Jesse__H
      @Jesse__H Před 4 lety +6

      @@Silly.Old.Sisyphus that was a very silly thing you just said.

    • @PeterPete
      @PeterPete Před 4 lety +1

      Quote - you gotta love the british
      Huh? They are a right miserable unhappy bunch of people. I wouldn't recommend anyone to live in UK unless they want to lose their peace of mind. I see lots of unhappy people here. The only fun they get is laughing at others misfortunes!! You want to visit a care home in UK, not many people laugh there!!

    • @Sophiedorian0535
      @Sophiedorian0535 Před 4 lety

      Everything that goes completely like this, starts with going a little bit like this. Nothing, ever, goes completely like this all at once. Nothing that goes like the, goes like that!