The Virus Philosopher: Nathalie Gontier Takes Viral Structures and Functions to a Higher Plane
Finding Genius Podcast
Richard Jacobs
4.4 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 23 September 2020
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Nathalie Gontier is a philosopher of science who specializes in evolutionary theory with a focus on viruses and immune system coevolution. This podcast adds a new angle to Richard's special series exploring viral spread and behavior in preparation for his book.
She explores
- How the "are viruses alive" conundrum is addressed by multiple perspectives,
- How Aristotle and Descartes might approach discussions on viral agency, and
- How means of opportunity have shaped virus behaviors such as quorum sensing and entry points.
Nathalie Gontier is the founder and director of the Applied Evolutionary Epistemology Lab at the University of Lisbon in Portugal. She's a returning guest and spends this discussion digging deeper into virus types, evolution, and behavior. She's very interested in viruses because they are one of most common parasites that every life form has to cope with.
She studies how that interaction occurs and does this work alongside scientists to conceptualize this form of interaction with the hope of increasing our understanding. She establishes from the beginning that viruses do not exclude any form of life from their activity and live inside the cells of archaea, bacteria, and all eukaryotes.
She addresses COVID-19 directly, noting that it is way up in the food chain of the virus domain. She comments that it is amazing how one virus can spread and effect so many people quickly as we approach about one million dead from COVID-19 worldwide. Then she tackles some of Richard's tough questions regarding viruses, but gives answers quite different from previous guests with her science philosophy perspective.
She has solid details to back up her answers, such as a study in Israel that proved quorum sensing and viruses' ability to communicate about whether to attack their biological host. She ends with an elegant description of their place in our human bio system. Listen in for some sharp discussion and commentary about viruses.
For more about her work, see the Applied Evolutionary Epistemology Lab page and find her YouTube channel.
Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0my
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Forget frequently asked questions common sense common knowledge or Google how about advice from a real genius |
| 0:06.8 | 95% of people in any profession are good enough to be qualified and licensed 5% go and beyond. They become very good at what they do. |
| 0:15.1 | But only 0.1% are real Jesus. |
| 0:18.3 | Richard Jacobs has made it his life's mission to find them for you. |
| 0:22.4 | He hunts down and interviews geniuses in every field, sleep science, cancer, stem cells, |
| 0:27.2 | ketogenic diets, and more. |
| 0:28.8 | Here come the geniuses. |
| 0:30.4 | This is the Finding Genius Podcast. |
| 0:33.0 | The Richard Jacobs. |
| 0:35.0 | Hello, this is Richard Jacobs with the Finding Genius Podcast. |
| 0:41.0 | I have Natalie Gontier, PhD, she's a director of the Applied Evolutionary |
| 0:46.2 | Epistemology Lab. She's part of the Faculty of Science on the University of Lisbon and |
| 0:51.2 | Portugal. So she's going to be part of the virus book that I'm putting together. |
| 0:56.0 | So I think she'll make a great edition. |
| 0:58.0 | So Natalie, thanks for coming. |
| 0:59.0 | How you doing? |
| 1:00.0 | I'm fine. |
| 1:01.0 | Thank you very much Richard. |
| 1:02.0 | And thank you very much for inviting me. I'm very happy to be back on your show and I look forward to participating in this project. |
| 1:10.0 | Well first again for people that don't know a bit about your background and your current research. What do you what are you doing? |
| 1:17.0 | So I'm a philosopher of science. I am not a virologist. I'm a philosopher of science and I study evolutionary theory so I focus on the field of biology and within that field I focus on the one aspect I focus on is reticulate evolution. |
| 1:33.0 | So that is evolution as it occurs by means of hybridization, symbiosis, |
... |
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