Further Reading.
N3: Next-Generation Nonsurgical Neurotechnology.
https://www.darpa.mil/research/progra…
Advancements in neural closed-loop manipulations in awake, behaving animals.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science…
INSIGHT: Universal Neural Simulator for Analog Circuits Harnessing Autoregressive Transformers.
https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.
MouseGoggles: an immersive virtual reality headset for mouse neuroscience and behavior.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s4159…
Michael Levin is an American developmental and synthetic biologist at Tufts University, where he is the Vannevar Bush Distinguished Professor. Levin is a director of the Allen Discovery Center at Tufts University and Tufts Center for Regenerative and Developmental Biology. He is also co-director of the Institute for Computationally Designed Organisms with Josh Bongard.
Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b92xAErofYQA7bU4e Join TOEmail at https://www.curtjaimungal.org.
Timestamps:
00:00 — Intro.
00:30 — Biggest Myths of Biology.
07:18 — Tying Michael’s Work Together.
35:25 — Who Are We (Humans)?
56:10 — Cognition.
01:14:10 — Conscious Agents.
01:33:25 — Bioelectricity and Cancer.
02:16:15 — Support TOE
Join TOEmail at https://www.curtjaimungal.org.
Thanks to Ekkolapto! Ekkolapto is thinkubator that creates ecosystems for the most creatively intelligent to discuss their most unorthodox, interdisciplinary ideas to a critically receptive audience. Visit Ekkolapto at https://ekkolapto.org.
Links Mentioned:
Michael’s paper on cognition — https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti…
Gabriele Carcassi Video — • Newtonian/Lagrangian/Hamiltonian mechanics…
Michael Levin’s blog post on advice — https://thoughtforms.life/what-advice…
TOE ep with Levin, Tung and Gumuskaya — • New Groundbreaking Research, Anthrobots, H…
TOE ep with Levin — • Unveiling the Mind-Blowing Biotech of Rege…
TOE ep with Bach and Levin — • Michael Levin Λ Joscha Bach: Collective In…
TOE ep with Lang, Friston and Levin — • Levin Λ Friston Λ Fields: \.
In physics, quantum tunnel ling, barrier penetration, or simply tunnel ling is a quantum mechanical phenomenon in which an object such as an electron or atom passes through a potential energy barrier that, according to classical mechanics, should not be passable due to the object not having sufficient energy to pass or surmount the barrier.
Tunnelling is a consequence of the wave nature of matter and quantum indeterminacy. The quantum wave function describes the states of a particle or other physical system and wave equations such as the Schrödinger equation describe their evolution. In a system with a short, narrow potential barrier, a small part of wavefunction can appear outside of the barrier representing a probability for tunnel ling through the barrier.
Since the probability of transmission of a wave packet through a barrier decreases exponentially with the barrier height, the barrier width, and the tunnel ling particle’s mass, tunnel ling is seen most prominently in low-mass particles such as electrons tunnel ling through atomically narrow barriers. However tunnel ling has been observed with protons and even atoms and tunnel ling has been used to explain physical effects with particles this large.
Cambridge, MA (May 27, 2026) —The proton sharks showed up on a Friday.
In a routine data calibration meeting for NASA’s Parker Solar Probe in 2020, a small group of scientists were scrolling through visualizations of their data showing solar winds. Suddenly, a weird shape flashed on the screen: Instead of the usual rounded blob of solar‑wind protons, this distribution had a long, flattened, head-like structure jutting out to one side.
“This looks like a hammerhead shark,” heliophysicist Jaye Verniero of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center said. And the nickname stuck.
Researchers at VIB, Ghent University, and VUB have uncovered how two proteins essential for immune cell development work together at the molecular level. The findings provide important insights into a critical mechanism that mediates the integration of molecular signals received from immunological threats. Their work appears in Nature Communications.
T cells undergo a strict selection process in the thymus before they become fully functional. This ensures that healthy T cells can recognize immunological threats while avoiding attacks against the body’s own tissues. Dysregulation of this process can contribute to autoimmune diseases or immune deficiencies.
For nearly two decades, scientists have known that a protein called Themis is essential for this developmental checkpoint. However, exactly how Themis worked at the molecular level remained unclear.
In 2023, philosopher Philip Goff posed a deceptively simple question on X (formerly known as Twitter): “Do electrons exists?” Physicists, philosophers, and a wide range of commentators responded in droves. Their reactions ranged from curt dismissals to insightful reflections on the nature of scientific knowledge. Against this lively backdrop, three academics conducted a formal investigation into how physicists might answer the question.
Céline Henne is a philosopher working on the epistemology and philosophy of language at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Hannah Tomczyk, a physicist at HighFinesse in Germany, specialized in the history and philosophy of science at the University of Cambridge in the UK. Christoph Sperber is a data scientist at Tübingen University Hospital in Germany. Together, they surveyed 384 physicists, publishing their findings under the title “Physicists’ Views on Scientific Realism” [1]. Henne and Tomczyk spoke to Physics Magazine about scientific realism—a philosophical position embraced by many physicists—and about alternative viewpoints.
All interviews are edited for brevity and clarity.
A study by researchers at The University of Manchester, carried out alongside the Universities of Melbourne and Copenhagen, could hold the key to understanding the causes of long-term health problems, such as infertility and ovarian cancer.
The study, published in PRX Life, used a combination of high-resolution imaging, flow measurements, and mathematical modeling to examine fluid flows around corals that are driven by cilia—densely packed tiny hairs on the coral’s surface. The collective beating of the cilia contributes to the movement of fluid around the surface of the coral, regulating the animal’s immediate environment through the transport of particles such as oxygen.
The researchers found that heterogeneity in ciliary orientation —small variations in the direction individual cilia beat—can significantly boost transport efficiency. For substances that diffuse slowly through the fluid, this natural variability increased particle transport by more than 50% compared to perfectly aligned cilia. This contrasts with other biological systems, highlighting how coral cilia are uniquely adapted to their environment.
Internal changes due to the sun’s “active biorhythm” have become increasingly “skin-deep” over the past four solar activity cycles, according to a new study.
Publishing its findings in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, an international team led by the University of Birmingham reveals solar magnetic activity is being squeezed into an increasingly shallow layer just below the visible surface, signposting long-term changes to the sun’s active behavior.
Solar activity rises and falls in 11‑year cycles, producing solar flares, and ejections of highly charged particles and coronal mass ejections that give rise to space weather. This activity, and its cyclic variation, has its origins in the sun’s interior, in processes that regenerate and reorganize the sun’s magnetic field.
Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation from the sun’s surface, which can wreak havoc on Earth’s power grids, damage orbiting satellites, and pose serious radiation risks to astronauts. Yet despite decades of study, the processes that trigger these eruptions remain poorly understood.
In a new preprint on arXiv, a team led by Louis Seyfritz at the New Jersey Institute of Technology has captured rare observations of a large flare in the hours before it erupted, offering new clues about what sets these events in motion.