Life's Edge: Exploring the Boundary between Living & Nonliving | Carl Zimmer | Into the Impossible (#320)

Into the Impossible With Brian Keating

Brian Keating

Science, Physics, Natural Sciences

4.7 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 4 June 2023

⏱️ 72 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On this episode of The INTO THE IMPOSSIBLE Podcast, Carl Zimmer discusses the importance of ethics in scientific communication and how scientific discoveries can be inaccurately reported by journalists, leading to misunderstandings by the public. The difficulty of defining what it means to be alive is explored and the stakes of this debate, particularly in regards to the autonomy of one's own body, are discussed. The episode also touches on the controversy surrounding gain of function research on pathogens and the importance of verifying scientific findings. The guest shares anecdotes from her career, including her experience covering the controversial discovery of arsenic life, and reflects on why biology continues to surprise and fascinate her. The episode ends with a discussion on the human brain’s difficulty in dealing with ambiguous states and the challenge of capturing people’s interest in retractions or flawed findings. Carl Zimmer is an expert science writer who is highly curious about the mysteries of life and often ponders the question of how to define it. Although scientists all study life, their definitions vary, leading to a unique fascination for Zimmer. He was particularly inspired by the astronomers who study the same thing, making their work seem more straightforward. Zimmer was also driven by the belief that advanced technology can sometimes feel magical. These interests have shaped his career as a science writer, and he has covered everything from genetics to pythons. https://carlzimmer.com/ Subscribe to the Jordan Harbinger Show for amazing content from Apple’s best podcast of 2018! https://www.jordanharbinger.com/podcasts Please leave a rating and review: On Apple devices, click here, https://apple.co/39UaHlB On Spotify it’s here: https://spoti.fi/3vpfXok On Audible it’s here https://tinyurl.com/wtpvej9v Find other ways to rate here: https://briankeating.com/podcast Support the podcast on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/drbriankeating or become a Member on YouTube- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmXH_moPhfkqCk6S3b9RWuw/join Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Ask biologists themselves and be like, so what's your definition of life?
0:08.4	They just be like, ah, well they might have some definition and then the next person would have a different one.
0:15.0	Or more often they would just want to like answer the question.
0:19.0	Be like, oh, you know, I just study pythons.
0:21.0	Like, that's what really fascinated me and and maybe that's what made me sort of equip about you know
0:26.5	astronomers having it more easy like all these people study the same thing they all study life and
0:31.7	either don't know how to define it or they come up with
0:34.7	definitions that are pretty different from each other and I found that it
0:39.0	really stuck with me and eventually I just sort of felt like I need to dive
0:42.3	deep into this.
0:46.0	Welcome everyone to this episode of Into the Impossible with acclaimed science writer and author Carl Zimmer,
0:51.0	discussing his latest of 14 books, Life's Edge, the search for what it means
0:57.1	to be alive.
0:59.3	Zimmer's writing has appeared in prestigious publications such as The New York Times, National Geographic,
1:03.6	and Scientific American. He has a focus on evolutionary biology and genetics and
1:09.0	in this book he delves deep into the origin and nature of life and the implications of manipulating it.
1:17.0	Your fearless host Brian Keating probes Carl on the big questions.
1:22.0	What is life? What is alive? How did life begin? And one of
1:26.8	our favorite topics is their life beyond earth. And what does astrophysics have to do with any of this anyway?
1:34.0	Please, keep evolving and keep into the impossible at the top of your feeds by subscribing and following.
1:41.0	For some extra credit, jump over to our YouTube channel at
1:44.0	Dr. Brian Heating, that's D.R. Brian Heating, where you can see the video version of
	...

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