Dr. Michael Levin — Reprogramming Bioelectricity

Cancer as Electrical Disregulation00:00

Cancer fundamentally involves an electrical disregulation among cells. It's a dissociative identity disorder on the part of the cells—a disorder of the cognitive glue that binds individual cells toward large-scale purpose (building organs and tissues) rather than amoeba-level behaviors. In animal models, they detect incipient tumor formation and prevent/normalize tumors after formation by restoring electrical connections to the group, enabling cells to form a memory of what they're supposed to do—not by fixing DNA, not by killing cells with chemotherapy.

Mike, very nice to finally connect. >> Yeah, wonderful. >> Thanks for making the time. >> Of course. Yeah, thanks for having me.

Robert O. Becker's The Body Electric00:30

Discovered The Body Electric by Robert O. Becker (orthopedic surgeon's scientific memoir on experiments with salamanders exploring electricity in biology) in an old bookstore during 1986 World's Fair in Vancouver, Canada. Book is a patchwork including applied field dangers but stunned by references to prior work validating bioelectric ideas.

Defining Bioelectricity01:32

Bioelectricity is how living systems exploit the physics of electricity. Two kinds:

• Familiar kind: neuroscience—electrical activity in brain cells binds neurons into collective intelligence underlying mind, beliefs, preferences.
• Developmental bioelectricity: origins of brain's tricks predate neurons; body's pre-brain use of electricity for thinking about anatomy.