Groundbreaking chemist defines all of life in 2 words | Lee Cronin
This interview is an episode from @The-Well, our publication about ideas that inspire a life well-lived, created with the @JohnTempletonFoundation.
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Watch Lee Cronin’s next interview ► How the universe randomly unfolded from “quantum foam” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3f6TSjR2Grk&t=0s
What is life, really? Despite our scientific advancements, we still don’t really know.
Lee Cronin, the Regis Professor of Chemistry at the University of Glasgow, says there is a significant disconnect between the physics of the universe and the biological processes we observe. This discrepancy makes for a difficult challenge in understanding how inanimate matter evolves into breathing, thinking, life forms.
The solution? Cronin proposes assembly theory – where we use complexity at scale to piece together all the components that work together to create adaptable life. Assembly theory suggests that life emerges through two key processes: copying and existence. These two simple words, Cronin explains, are the essential essences of life as we know it.
Thanks to Cronin, this theory has been put in use by NASA in its search for lifeforms on other planets. Together, we are growing closer to understanding the mystery of life – how it started, what it looks like, and how it might evolve.
Read the full video transcript: https://bigthink.com/the-well/how-does-matter-become-life-assembly-theory
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About Lee Cronin:
Leroy Cronin has one of the largest multidisciplinary, chemistry-based research teams in the world. He has given over 300 international talks and has authored over 350 peer-reviewed papers with recent work published in Nature, Science, and PNAS. He and his team are trying to make artificial life forms, find alien life, explore the digitization of chemistry, understand how information can be encoded into chemicals, and construct chemical computers.
He went to the University of York where he completed both a degree and PhD in chemistry and then went on to do postdocs in Edinburgh and Germany before becoming a lecturer at the Universities of Birmingham, and then Glasgow where he has been since 2002, working up the ranks to become the Regius Professor of Chemistry in 2013 at age 39.
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