Recreational Biology: from animals in flatland to topological traps - Livestream

Recreational mathematics involves mathematical puzzles and games, often appealing to children and untrained adults, inspiring their further study of the subject. Can a similar analogy be drawn in biology? Without making any claims of usefulness, we will explore a wide range of puzzles in living systems including: Can single cells be toroidal in nature? Can a two-dimensional animal exist? How would these geometries manifest themselves in physiology of these systems. Can cells “literally” talk to each other? Can single cells think? How fast can a cell “blink”? How did the first multicellular life coordinate itself? Finally, we will reflect if curiosity is a good to have or a must have for biomedical progress; and how do we support it.

Speaker: Manu Prakash, Stanford University

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