In this podcast, Denis Noble, CBE, PhD, FRS, the renowned British biologist, discusses his long career in biology and exciting new discoveries in the world of cells.
Renowned British biologist, Noble is a leader and vocal voice of the modern biology arena. He was the Burdon Sanderson Chair of Cardiovascular Physiology at the University of Oxford for twenty years and later, Professor Emeritus. Additionally, Noble was appointed as Co-Director of Computational Physiology. Noble is an early pioneer of systems biology and he was instrumental in the development of the first mathematical model of the heart.
Noble discusses extracellular vesicles (EVs)—lipid bilayer-delimited particles—naturally released from a cell but they cannot replicate as cells do. Noble provides an overview of cells, the interior of cells, and he details how extracellular vesicles occur, discussing DNA and RNA, and the complex processes used for communication. Noble states that the scientific community used to think that cells were essentially cut off from each other, but as he explains, that is just not the case. In fact, cells are regularly exchanging information all the time. The extracellular vesicles, as he explains, are the tiny packets that contain information that can be exchanged.
Noble goes on to discuss how Darwin theorized about the immense significance of transgenerational information being passed on, but of course he was not able to prove this in his era. The biologist talks about our ability to now develop tools that can better diagnose and treat diseases. And Noble wraps up by discussing digital intelligence and AI and how intelligence is created.
As an evolution scientist and leading biologist, Noble remains a prominent figure in the scientific community, speaking out about his research on biological life, genetics, cellular processes, and so much more.
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