Nirosha (Narosha/Nirosha) Murugan (guest/researcher)

And he said, I don't know, but this is how it works.

And I'm like, no, but how?

Like, you know, I'm that annoying grad student.

But like, can you tell me a little bit more?

Like, where does the time fit in?

And he said, this is just the way it is.

I don't know how it works.

And that I don't know...

was enough for me to figure out maybe I can go find out that I don't know.

The gap that I was trying to fill is that how can the chemistry, how can the physical interactions occur so quickly?

Why can't we have the same thing, but through non-physical interactions?

So the way that I kind of like picture it is maybe if you had a door with a tap card access versus an actual old school locking key, you can open the door both ways.

Either the proteins can do it, that will take a longer time to do the behavior, or the

Like a wireless tap where you can just kind of put a card against a key receiver and there's a signal or a door opens.

So, okay, what can be faster that cells can use to communicate?

What is the fastest signal that we know?

Light.

It is the fastest modality that exists in our universe.

And then you go out, or what I did is went out to research to see if anyone else has asked those questions and how they test them.

And through my research, I found the original papers that showed that biology emits light.