576K views · Mar 31, 2021 · 19:41 · 7 HN recommenders · 13 mentions · discussed 2021–2026
Biologist Michael Levin explains the bioelectric layer that coordinates cells to build organs and bodies, showing footage of two-headed worms and introducing xenobots. He discusses implications for medicine and the nature of life.
Why Hacker News points people here: HN commenters use it as the accessible 20-minute entry point to Levin's bioelectricity research whenever regeneration or cell signaling comes up.
“If you have 20 minutes to watch this ted talk interview I highly recommend it.”HN comment, 2023
“This is new though (and revolutionary)”
New and revolutionary work on cellular electrical communication
Electric potential across other cells and also single-cell organisms is well known and not new. This is new though (and revolutionary): this video Regarding consciousness, I don't get why people who submit to consciousness being everywhere in the universe have problem with simply calling it the universe. It seems to make discussions much more productive.
“If you have 20 minutes to watch this ted talk interview I highly recommend it.”
Cells communicate via voltage, shaping behavior beyond DNA
your cells are sensitive to charge in general - cells attempt to maintain certain voltage differentials across their membranes via ion channels in the cell membrane, can communicate voltage information with each other via gap junctions, etc. That electrical communication does control how cells behave. If you have 20 minutes to watch this ted talk interview I highly recommend it. My mind was blown. Your DNA determines the hardware, but there's a lot of non chemical communication that goes on between cells that determine how they behave. this video Once you realize that cells can effectively communicate with each other via voltage, things like whats described about electrical bandages become less surprising.
“Here is an overview video”
Overview of Levin's bioelectric research on how bodies form missing parts
Regarding how the body "knows" how to form missing pieces, might be worth checking out Michael Levin's research regarding bio-electricity. Most interesting finding to me is that once modified, the animal bodies continue to produce different parts as if there is some electrical "memory" in the cells. Here is an overview video: this video , though there are much longer lectures and papers which I would recommend if you are interested.
“One interesting research group tackling this question”
Levin group research on emergence of multicellular agency
One interesting research group tackling this question is ex-computer engineer, currently biologist Prof. Micahel Levine's group. They built xenobots (biological robots) from frog cells which are not evolutionarily programmed to do tasks which they accomplished. Their research in part deals with emergence of agency at multi-cellular level. And they want to get at the fundamental signatures of what makes some collection of agents into a new single agent at an higher level. Checkout, this video And a new research paper (inhavent had the time to read yet) on this question of how coherent higher order agents emerge from underlying sub-agents. link
“There is a good video”
Neurons as hardware, electrical activity as software
Maybe the neurons are the hardware layer. The software is represented by the electronic activity. There is a good video this video about this topic.
“There's a fascinating (in my opinion) TED talk about this”
Regenerative experiments with flatworms by the same biologist
There's a fascinating (in my opinion) TED talk about this featuring the same Biologist, with examples of regenerative experiments performed using Flatworms: this video
“20 min ted talk”
20 minute TED talk on Levin's bioelectricity work
The article and the comments remind me of Michael Levin's work on bioelectricity. 20 min ted talk - this video 3 hr lex fridman episode - link
Listed among further Michael Levin material
More about Michael Levin: What Bodies Think About: Bioelectric Computation Outside the Nervous System – link Why don’t (today’s) Robots get Cancer? – link The electrical blueprints that orchestrate life – this video And a tweet about the article – link
Electrical signaling coordinates organism development
"Something electrical floating around your cells" isn't just the mind either, it's also how the organism coordinates its development: this video
Extropians hack reality versus a purpose built man made machine: this video Ideas like designer drugs and therapy to embed experience and knowledge is way more interesting than VR apps
Levin's regenerative biology work at Tufts
We’d be better utilized as CPU and memory storage. Maybe generate brain structure, biology state with (re)generative biology like Michael Levin is up to at Tufts[0]. There’s tons of alternative research paths going untouched that leverage information theory to hack “reality” directly rather than hack on synthetic computers and software within an enclosed time-space vacuum constrained by known hardware limitations. Metaverses running on synthetic machines seems way more prosaic than a metaverse in my own head I might be able to switch on off with a pill. [0] this video
Levin lab's electrical blueprints tie to regeneration findings
Hmga1 reduces repressive histone marks (H3K27me3), effectively unlocking genes typically silenced after embryonic development. This process seems to tap into an evolutionarily preserved "blueprint" encoded in the DNA. By reactivating these dormant pathways, differentiated cells like cardiomyocytes regain some of the plasticity and regenerative capacity characteristic of embryonic cells. If we combine this with the work coming out of Dr. Michael Levin's Lab at Tufts ( this video the existence of electrical blueprints that orchestrate life, we should see, as we do in this study that the regeneration observed was precisely tailored to the injury, avoiding pathological outcomes like cardiomegaly or uncoordinated growth. This preserved blueprint exists in all differentiated cells.
Levin's cells structuring and repairing morphology via electrical communication
On the outside it looks very similar to what Michael Levin found on electrical communication between living cells. There too, the organism's cells were able to structure and repair their larger-scale morphology: this video
