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Michael Levin: The electrical blueprints that orchestrate life | TED

TED · 575.6K views · 2021-03-31 · 19:41

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Overview

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.

On Hacker News

HN commenters use it as the accessible 20-minute entry point to Levin's bioelectricity research whenever regeneration or cell signaling comes up.

Recommended by 7 HN people across 7 months · HN mentions 2021–2026

Topics

Biology & biotechnologyEvolution & genetics
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michael levinxenobotsbioelectricityregenerationmorphogenesisted

What people said

LegitShady · 2023-03 · Strong recommendation

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. [VIDEO] Once you realize that cells can effectively communicate with each other via voltage, things like whats described about electrical bandages become less surprising.

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comboy · 2022-03 · Strong recommendation

Electric potential across other cells and also single-cell organisms is well known and not new. This is new though (and revolutionary): [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.

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simmanian · 2025-10 · Recommendation

The article and the comments remind me of Michael Levin's work on bioelectricity. 20 min ted talk - [VIDEO] 3 hr lex fridman episode - [LINK]

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Sources

Video by TED, played through YouTube.

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