Venki Ramakrishnan

And of course, the other skin in the game I have is I like to say I'm not selling anything, but of course, I'd like the book to sell.

And of course, the other skin in the game I have is I like to say I'm not selling anything, but of course, I'd like the book to sell.

They need to sort of... Oddly enough, I found many unicellular organisms do die. For example, budding yeast. where you can clearly separate the mother cell from the daughter cell, they do die. The mother cell only can undergo a certain number of divisions, and then it's basically senescent and dies. And interestingly, people have even done this with simple bacteria like E. coli.

They need to sort of... Oddly enough, I found many unicellular organisms do die. For example, budding yeast. where you can clearly separate the mother cell from the daughter cell, they do die. The mother cell only can undergo a certain number of divisions, and then it's basically senescent and dies. And interestingly, people have even done this with simple bacteria like E. coli.

The trouble with E. coli is you can't tell which one is the mother cell and which one's the daughter cell. But people figured out that when E. coli grows, it grows in one direction. It doesn't grow in both directions at the same time. So there's a new part of E. coli and there's an old part of the E. coli when it's when it grows.

The trouble with E. coli is you can't tell which one is the mother cell and which one's the daughter cell. But people figured out that when E. coli grows, it grows in one direction. It doesn't grow in both directions at the same time. So there's a new part of E. coli and there's an old part of the E. coli when it's when it grows.

Then when it divides, one half, one daughter cell inherits the new part. The other daughter cell inherits the old part. And if you keep repeating this by very carefully producing these E. coli in thin tubes so you can keep track of it, it turns out that the old E. coli eventually dies. So it's pretty amazing. So I would say almost everything dies, even even unicellular organisms.

Then when it divides, one half, one daughter cell inherits the new part. The other daughter cell inherits the old part. And if you keep repeating this by very carefully producing these E. coli in thin tubes so you can keep track of it, it turns out that the old E. coli eventually dies. So it's pretty amazing. So I would say almost everything dies, even even unicellular organisms.

But of course, that's not what we mean when we say death. And this actually, you know, since we both have a connection with the Santa Fe Institute, this really, I absorbed this through a series of workshops on aging at the Santa Fe Institute, where they think of aging as a Biological aging is a special case of aging of everything, all complex systems.

But of course, that's not what we mean when we say death. And this actually, you know, since we both have a connection with the Santa Fe Institute, this really, I absorbed this through a series of workshops on aging at the Santa Fe Institute, where they think of aging as a Biological aging is a special case of aging of everything, all complex systems.

For example, companies or societies, cities, they all grow and they age and then they die. So in our case, what do we mean when we die? It's a particular weird thing. It has to do with us as an individual, and that's also hard to define. What do you mean by an individual? Because the strange thing is, When you're alive, millions of cells in you are dying all the time.

For example, companies or societies, cities, they all grow and they age and then they die. So in our case, what do we mean when we die? It's a particular weird thing. It has to do with us as an individual, and that's also hard to define. What do you mean by an individual? Because the strange thing is, When you're alive, millions of cells in you are dying all the time.

And in fact, many of those cells are required to die at appropriate times. If they didn't die, you as an individual would die. So that's one side of the story. The other side is that when you die, most of the cells in your body are still alive. In fact, that's the reason why we can donate our liver and kidney and heart to transplant recipients when we die. And so here you have this paradox.

And in fact, many of those cells are required to die at appropriate times. If they didn't die, you as an individual would die. So that's one side of the story. The other side is that when you die, most of the cells in your body are still alive. In fact, that's the reason why we can donate our liver and kidney and heart to transplant recipients when we die. And so here you have this paradox.

When you're alive, a lot of you is dying. When you're dead, most of you is still alive. So what does this mean? It means that we can no longer function coherently as a whole individual. And we worry about it because we are aware of ourselves as an individual. We have consciousness. But you can imagine species that don't have consciousness.

When you're alive, a lot of you is dying. When you're dead, most of you is still alive. So what does this mean? It means that we can no longer function coherently as a whole individual. And we worry about it because we are aware of ourselves as an individual. We have consciousness. But you can imagine species that don't have consciousness.

The extreme are, for example, plants, but also simple animals. They might never actually, even if they had a nervous system, they might not actually even think about death. It's just something that happens. So it's a peculiar situation that we're in that we obsess about mortality and death.

The extreme are, for example, plants, but also simple animals. They might never actually, even if they had a nervous system, they might not actually even think about death. It's just something that happens. So it's a peculiar situation that we're in that we obsess about mortality and death.

Oh, definitely. I think, for example, when you get to sexual organisms, then you have a clear separation between the germline, which is responsible for reproduction, and the rest of the body. And in a sense, there's a part of us that has been alive for billions of years because we didn't come out of nothing. We came out of a cell, which came out of a cell, which came out of a cell.

Oh, definitely. I think, for example, when you get to sexual organisms, then you have a clear separation between the germline, which is responsible for reproduction, and the rest of the body. And in a sense, there's a part of us that has been alive for billions of years because we didn't come out of nothing. We came out of a cell, which came out of a cell, which came out of a cell.