Michael Levin

Biophysicist, Biology Professor, Tufts Director

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Dr. Michael Levin, Ph.D. is a professor in the biology department at Tufts University.    He serves as the director of the Allen Discovery Center at Tufts and the Tufts Center for Regenerative and Devlopmental Biology.   He is one of the leading researchers and thinkers in the world when it comes to understanding biophysical mechanisms, morphogenesis, and the dynamics of life.  

Quotes by Michael Levin

"The idea that cognition just magically shows up at some biological step, and then humans gain a true self... that runs against everything we know about evolution and developmental biology." - Michael Levin

"We've underestimated matter... We've been sold this notion that matter lacks intelligence... We are finding novel proto-cognitive capacities in extremely minimal systems.  And they're surprising and shocking to us.  " - Michael Levin

"Potential energy and least action principles are the tiniest hopes and dreams there are." - Michael Levin

"A fertilized egg has tens of thousands of cells.  Among those cells you have an ocean of potentiality for the initial forming of individual self-hood.  Certain regions of cells organize and form together to become an embryo, and that embryo group of cells essentially tells the rest of the cells in the egg to back down at that point, generally resulting in a single embryo per fertilized egg.   However, by scratching the cellular surface and temporarily breaking the communication between the thousands of cells with this potential, you will see multiple embryos form instead of just one.  This collective organization of cells and pursuit of goals is the origin of self-hood." - Michael Levin