Inferring the 'Laws of Life' at a Planetary Scale, Sara Walker, Arizona State University

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  • čas přidán 29. 08. 2024
  • Sara Walker
    Associate Professor, School of Earth and Space Exploration &
    Deputy Director, Beyond Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science, Arizona State University
    External Faculty, Santa Fe Institute
    "Inferring the 'Laws of Life' at a Planetary Scale"
    In 1943, Erwin Schrodinger famously delivered a set of lectures at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies aiming to tackle the question “What is Life?” from the first-principles approach of a theoretical physicist. Over 70 years later, we’ve still made little headway in coming up with a general theory for what life is. While many definitions for life do exist, these are primarily descriptive, not predictive, and they have so far proved insufficient to explain the origins of life from non-living matter, or to provide rigorous constraints on what properties are universal to all life, even that on other worlds. Yet, as NASA and other space agencies are setting sights on life detection as a goal of upcoming robotic missions and space observatories, more rigorous understanding of the universal properties of living matter are becoming increasingly vital to uncover. This talk will discuss new approaches to understanding what universal principles might underlie living matter and how to generate it, based on studying biochemical networks on Earth from the scale of individual organisms to the planetary scale.
    The Origins of Life Speaker Series explores the conditions and circumstances that led to the diversity of life on Earth. The interdisciplinary series will connect the formation of planets, the evolution of early Earth, and the complex chemistry and delivery of the fundamental organic molecules that serve as the building blocks of early life, and how they can establish complex, self-replicating systems of cells and genetic material. Learn more: physicalscienc...
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    About the University of Chicago Physical Sciences Division
    The Physical Sciences Division (PSD) at the University of Chicago has a rich history of advancing and defining new fields of discovery in the physical and mathematical sciences, and this tradition of innovation continues today. Our inquiry and impact spans from the edge of the observable universe to human-computer interaction, from biophysical materials science to the geologic record of seawater composition, from gravitational waves to geometric flows, and beyond.
    The division includes the academic departments of Astronomy & Astrophysics, Chemistry, Computer Science, Geophysical Sciences, Mathematics, Physics, and Statistics. In addition, PSD is home to a number of interdisciplinary research institutes and centers, including the Enrico Fermi Institute, the James Franck Institute, and the Kavli Center for Cosmological Physics.
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Komentáře • 21

  • @louise3637
    @louise3637 Před 3 lety +8

    Really interesting talk. I have really enjoyed this whole series of talks and I really recommend everyone to watch the other ones. They are all so different!

  • @klammer75
    @klammer75 Před 3 lety +6

    Amazing talk....have we taken any group theoretic or other algebraic approaches to the topology of these biochemical structures? That could be a level of abstraction that may yield these universal class structures being searched for.....just a thought. Great talk!

  • @EricLouisYoung
    @EricLouisYoung Před 2 lety

    The observer effect and the mandela effect disqualify the presumption of a material-based reality.

  • @IbnFarteen
    @IbnFarteen Před 3 lety +2

    I see. Life is the physics of information acting in on non equilibrium systems. I'm very interested in this approach. Seems like you could somehow define the right phase space and define some kind of non equilibrium Hamiltonian with some insights about how recorded information (eg: RNA) governs entropy. There's a Nobel prize in there somewhere. I'd give up everything and work on it in your group. (If nothing else I could help with you and your and professor Hinczewski's presentation skills - please slow down and consider your audience)

    • @notunoriginal
      @notunoriginal Před 3 lety +1

      I had no issues with her presentation speed. If you need the lecture to go at a more leisurely pace, you can adjust the playback speed to 0.75 or 0.5x

  • @deplant5998
    @deplant5998 Před 3 lety +3

    Listened to her entire podcast with Lex Fridman. A whole lot of waffle and semantics. Thought i would give her another try. Listened so far to 20% and my impression unchanged. Too vague “challenging conceptual frameworks”. Sheesh. How can someone clearly so intelligent speak so rapidly for 30mins without really saying ANYTHING????

    • @janwaska4081
      @janwaska4081 Před 3 lety +2

      I got a similar impression, but what else could she say on this topic? She's talking about a topic that is filled with so many question marks all over the map. And the more we know, more is there for us to learn. It's an unending process. Besides the hard problem of consciousness we also have the hard problem of OOL and the hard problem of macroevolution. Ms. Walker's coauthor Lee Cronin is trying to get the Evo2.0 OOL $10M along with Dr Szostak and others. Would Ms. Walker try to get that prize too? Will they all split it? How far are they from convincing Dr Noble and Dr Church that they got it right? It ain't easy.

    • @SolaceEasy
      @SolaceEasy Před 2 lety +1

      Seems to be an argument for studying only systems that are easy to describe and understand. Sheesh!

    • @davebewshey1549
      @davebewshey1549 Před rokem

      And how does someone so obviously intelligent and used to communicating with other people say "um" literally 67x in the first 4 minutes

  • @111jkjk
    @111jkjk Před 3 lety

    48:30 I couldnt understand what she said when she was talking about the perspective of LUCA as a planetary phase transition. What do I need to google to find out more about this

  • @KipIngram
    @KipIngram Před 2 lety

    What the heck is wrong with the subtitles? They don't match Dr. Walker's words *at all*.

  • @janwaska521
    @janwaska521 Před 3 lety +2

    Do the speakers in this video plan to compete with Dr Lee Cronin and Dr Jack Szostak for the Evo2.0 OOL $10M award?
    The speakers in this video may want to watch the videos by Dr Janes Tour on OOL.

    • @FarnhamJ07
      @FarnhamJ07 Před 3 lety

      Everything James Tour has to say boils down to "I don't understand how it could have happened, so it must be impossible without God." Supplemented by some misrepresentation and quote mining from abstracts that he clearly doesn't actually read, of course. I'm sure he's a fine synthetic chemist, but he has no idea what he's talking about when it comes to geochemistry and abiogenesis.

    • @janwaska4081
      @janwaska4081 Před 3 lety +1

      @@FarnhamJ07 would you like to submit a proposal for the Evo2.0 OOL $10M award? Even if you end up splitting it with Dr Cronin and Dr Szostak it's not too bad. Hey, why not?
      Can you provide examples of the "misrepresentation and quote mining" that you mentioned? Thanks.

  • @SolaceEasy
    @SolaceEasy Před 2 lety +1

    Content Rich. Play .75 speed.
    Q: Talk of LUCA seems to imply it hasn't happened again since. Are we looking elsewhere on Earth for non-LUCA life? Are we blinded by all the LUCA offspring everywhere?

  • @JeshuSavesEndTimeMinistry21C

    Transition from *"non living chemistry"* is a religious belief

  • @davebewshey1549
    @davebewshey1549 Před rokem

    "Um" 67x in first 4 minutes