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The electrical blueprints that orchestrate life | Michael Levin

Visit to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more. DNA isn’t the only builder in the biological world — there’s also a mysterious bioelectric layer directing cells to work together to grow organs, systems and bodies, says biologist Michael Levin. Sharing unforgettable and groundbreaking footage of two-headed worms,…

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Visit to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more.

DNA isn’t the only builder in the biological world — there’s also a mysterious bioelectric layer directing cells to work together to grow organs, systems and bodies, says biologist Michael Levin. Sharing unforgettable and groundbreaking footage of two-headed worms, he introduces us to xenobots — the world’s first living robots, created in his lab by cracking the electrical code of cells — and discusses what this discovery may mean for the future of medicine, the environment and even life itself. (This conversation, hosted by TED’s Chris Anderson, was recorded June 2020.)

The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world’s leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design — plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You’re welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know.

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97 Comments

97 Comments

  1. Mia Vos

    March 31, 2021 at 9:26 pm

    Those flatworms are behaving in an abnormal way though. They will not live.

  2. LAIDBACKMANNER

    March 31, 2021 at 9:29 pm

    WOW!!

  3. Sly Ski

    March 31, 2021 at 9:37 pm

    Boy, this is something

  4. Lucas Lucas

    March 31, 2021 at 9:51 pm

    I saw CatDog on those planarians

  5. Farshad Niazi

    March 31, 2021 at 10:31 pm

    Finally we realize that biology can not be explained solely by chemistry. Here comes physics and computer science departments to revolutionize biology. Great times.

  6. Dark Soul

    March 31, 2021 at 10:33 pm

    Two heads on a same body, highly competitive, not eating … are very happy he thinks!! … If anybody came to entrust such a guy to reprogram human cells! They would be just stupid! … This is a living breathing worse version of Dr. Frankenstein!!

  7. TheBoothParadigm

    March 31, 2021 at 10:34 pm

    Incredible! A groundbreaking step towards control over nature.

  8. NovemberTheHacker

    March 31, 2021 at 10:35 pm

    Stop lying.

  9. Nadah Mekhlef

    March 31, 2021 at 10:44 pm

    It is not possible to be more creative than it was.

  10. Антонио

    March 31, 2021 at 10:49 pm

    I already itching to start writing code for some organisms )

  11. Ts M

    March 31, 2021 at 10:50 pm

    This is insane! This type of research gives me a crazy high! Feeling euphoric! Thanks Ted! Keep up the great content! Just imagine, cutting your hand and manifesting a twin through cellular mitosis! Absolute bonkers!!

  12. sea bird

    March 31, 2021 at 10:58 pm

    Frankesntein isn’t a myth …..

  13. Ambiorix Jimenez

    March 31, 2021 at 11:02 pm

    ETERNAL LIFE!?!?!?!?

  14. Tilio Đarmati

    March 31, 2021 at 11:05 pm

    This is an april fools joke right? it has to be.

  15. Federico Benincasa

    March 31, 2021 at 11:07 pm

    Mind. Blown.

  16. Xuan Nguyen

    March 31, 2021 at 11:30 pm

    Such an amazing work and idea…can wait to see their next achievements!

  17. RSM

    March 31, 2021 at 11:40 pm

    Impressive discovery

  18. barry poontang

    March 31, 2021 at 11:43 pm

    ive wondered why so little work is dedicated to this exact field, its applications are huge, sure, but its literally the answer to life. the digital future is a lie, its a tool we use to answer these bio questions. The real future is biohacking, imagine a world where we have lazor ants and smart algae. edit: oh and also the whole live forever thing..thats kinda cool

  19. Adrian

    March 31, 2021 at 11:45 pm

    I second the other comments, that’s just remarkable.

  20. Zenn Exile

    April 1, 2021 at 12:30 am

    It’s astounding that the arrogance of macro perspective has persisted well into the 21st Century.

  21. thewiseturtle

    April 1, 2021 at 12:32 am

    Michael Levin was a somewhat recent guest on Lex Fridman’s podcast (on YouTube) and it’s absolutely fantastic. The guy is deeply passionate about his work and life and ideas and is such a pleasure to listen to.

  22. Mathieu Akerley

    April 1, 2021 at 12:33 am

    Look up the Ebner effect.

  23. Darko

    April 1, 2021 at 1:02 am

    In the 15’th minute a notion about the inevitability of life, galvanized in my brain.

  24. Lizbeth Rose

    April 1, 2021 at 1:16 am

    When you pan out and see how humans are this intelligence acting out on the earth organism then you will be able to resolve all of the age old questions

  25. Cyber Wick

    April 1, 2021 at 1:16 am

    Rewrite genetics why?no need for any messing.

  26. CHIRAG SHARMA

    April 1, 2021 at 11:23 am

    This was April fool

  27. Pepe Bawagan

    April 1, 2021 at 11:23 am

    MEATWAD!!!

  28. Woody Shea

    April 1, 2021 at 11:37 am

    This must be an April Fool’s thing. It’s just too astounding.

    Edit: To be clear, I want so much to believe that some day my brain injury can magically be erased that the pressure I feel to believe this is almost overwhelming… If I allowed myself to believe it, and then it turned out to be a joke, though, it would be devastating.

    • YawnGod

      April 1, 2021 at 2:25 pm

      Just don’t make it about you and you’ll be fine.

  29. hani

    April 1, 2021 at 11:37 am

    My god, that’s absolutely exciting!

  30. MDJAK

    April 1, 2021 at 12:04 pm

    Thank the good lord for people as pure genius as this gentleman.

  31. SANJEET KUMAR SINGH

    April 1, 2021 at 12:26 pm

    Can we have 3 heads

  32. E Cognitio

    April 1, 2021 at 12:28 pm

    17:29 what’s stopping the opposite from happening? Sending signals that damage an organism, sounds like a WMD….

    • David X. Rae

      April 1, 2021 at 11:29 pm

      *cough* 5g

  33. Naturally Interested

    April 1, 2021 at 1:06 pm

    Please don’t call such complex self-heraling processes ‘intelligent’. The IDiots are gonna leech onto that.

    • Naturally Interested

      April 1, 2021 at 1:09 pm

      Also biological systems are not computers. The code analogy is dumb.

  34. Daniel Beaudry

    April 1, 2021 at 1:29 pm

    When the electrical stimulus is lacking “VOLTAGE, energy” then it stops growing, and perishes, that creates cancers. So, we don’t produce enough energy for our body’s servomechanism.

    • Daniel Beaudry

      April 1, 2021 at 1:30 pm

      To control the growing, control de voltage.

  35. OmniversoSinDios

    April 1, 2021 at 2:04 pm

    Ok, you got my entirely attention now.

  36. Drew the Human

    April 1, 2021 at 2:35 pm

    Absolutely Groundbreaking and Mind-blowing in the most literal sense.

  37. Nomodus Project

    April 1, 2021 at 2:52 pm

    Wowwwww

  38. Bee Shep

    April 1, 2021 at 3:45 pm

    Paging Rupert Sheldrake…

  39. Alessa Feliciano

    April 1, 2021 at 4:14 pm

    This is amazing. Just wondering… what is the channel that allows these organized ion exchanges between cells to happen? Is it tubulin?

  40. DillonThomasDigital

    April 1, 2021 at 4:18 pm

    This was recorded June 2020! How much further along is this research since then???

  41. Ivan Rogic

    April 1, 2021 at 4:37 pm

    This is insane!

  42. Anurag Kaushik

    April 1, 2021 at 4:38 pm

    I studied this in my school days that this organism can regenerate, but getting to know that how it regenerates and that too we can control is just amazing stuff.

  43. DDPWE

    April 1, 2021 at 5:14 pm

    What a huge leap in further understanding biology! Sounds like we’re on our way to longer healthier life and re-growing appendages, among many other things of course!

  44. Daniel Montealegre

    April 1, 2021 at 6:11 pm

    WOW, this is HUGE

  45. Kęstas

    April 1, 2021 at 6:38 pm

    I think they are wrong, it’s all about diffusion and osmosis

  46. What uwant2no

    April 1, 2021 at 7:29 pm

    Had to think of the ciba geigy experiment when watching this video. They germinated seeds and fertilized fishegg in an electro static field and got unusual plant and fish development. For them it looked like a primeval form.

  47. Fieryfrostt

    April 1, 2021 at 8:32 pm

    Anyone knows if the offspring of these 2-headed flatworms would be normal?

    • Yen Bui

      April 2, 2021 at 5:56 am

      Yes because the DNA was not altered.

  48. Dave Canden

    April 1, 2021 at 9:20 pm

    Penile enhancement will finally be a reality!

  49. IcWhy

    April 1, 2021 at 9:52 pm

    Amazing video, thank you!

  50. 檜皮猫

    April 2, 2021 at 12:59 am

    11:16 traumatized

  51. He Who Is

    April 2, 2021 at 2:10 am

    Our organic space suits are solar powered tech. Roger that.

  52. OmniversoSinDios

    April 2, 2021 at 3:08 am

    ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the future!

  53. RobertA105

    April 2, 2021 at 8:59 am

    Midi-chlorians were intelligent microscopic life-forms that lived symbiotically inside the cells of all living things. When present in sufficient numbers, they could allow their host to detect the pervasive energy field known as the Force. Looks like he’s discovered the force. But in all seriousness this is BIG!! The electrical field around cells appears to able to do vast computations and communications. This better not be an Aprils fools day joke, as I’d be furious. Its just too big to fool around about.

  54. Navada Smith

    April 2, 2021 at 9:41 am

    Computers were made similar to the human brain. All Simulations are mimicking the natural Simulations of nature. Nature is the fundamental Simulation not fundamental reality. Intentions and consequent thoughts are/ love and wisdom, timeless and spaceless. They exist in the eternal realms, The void realms.They cause things to be Electrical and magnetical, causing physical Heat and light.

  55. Lieve Leysen

    April 2, 2021 at 10:31 am

    Spoken of an idea worth sharing: Wow! 🤩

  56. Snowman88

    April 2, 2021 at 11:55 am

    So Frank Herbert was right?

  57. TheyCallMeNewb

    April 2, 2021 at 12:21 pm

    Little bit abstract perhaps, but the veritable ‘maps’ of organismal organisation realised through chemo- and contract-attract and repel signal and reception, are putatively appended by this voltage channel-dependent map? And if so, in a bit part role (hence the belated discovery)?

  58. Invox

    April 2, 2021 at 12:51 pm

    TED be like: “Science is BACK baby!”
    Loved it.

  59. FR TR

    April 2, 2021 at 1:45 pm

    so 5g can be used to make us grow extra eyes ? Atleast a better deal than useless cancer … go science

  60. Drew the Human

    April 2, 2021 at 1:52 pm

    Was this an April fool’s joke??? Say it ain’t so

  61. Laarni Nate

    April 2, 2021 at 3:23 pm

    Wow!.amazing.!

  62. Mizael David

    April 2, 2021 at 3:29 pm

    This could soon be a Nobel Prize awardee.

  63. Mišel Šantl

    April 2, 2021 at 5:59 pm

    That’s amazing, great video

  64. Deborah Grant

    April 2, 2021 at 9:58 pm

    This is mind blowing and very exciting!!!

  65. C Burgess

    April 2, 2021 at 11:43 pm

    What is the connection between the manipulation of ion channels and the cell-fate determining epigenome?

  66. MrCK

    April 3, 2021 at 12:04 am

    😮

  67. Scott Plunkett

    April 3, 2021 at 4:37 am

    I’m a software developer and this legitimately creeps me out. Mutable global state…. THE HORROR!

  68. Daniel Barbuda Ferreira

    April 3, 2021 at 9:49 am

    Fantastic!

  69. Really not Rob

    April 3, 2021 at 1:48 pm

    Shortcut to quantum computing?

  70. Robin

    April 3, 2021 at 4:34 pm

    Unbelievable discovery and also quite frightening. Wow. The evidence was shocking

  71. Andrea Hazan

    April 3, 2021 at 6:41 pm

    I am in AWE!!! Of the shear intelligence of nature and the brilliance of these researchers!!! Thank You!!!

  72. Hello

    April 3, 2021 at 8:30 pm

    fucking crazy

  73. Hello

    April 3, 2021 at 8:40 pm

    after browsing reddit r science with their clickbait title its hard to belive this is real

  74. Hello

    April 3, 2021 at 8:40 pm

    after browsing reddit r science with their clickbait titles its hard to belive this is real

  75. THE ANGRY QUAD

    April 3, 2021 at 10:18 pm

    Would it penetrate the Spinal cord and reconstruct the spinal cord?

  76. Elizabeth LeBouef

    April 4, 2021 at 7:45 am

    Great going ! Similar technology has got into criminal hands and over a million of Americans are getting tortured 25/7 INNOUR homes and we are dying!! Do you care??? NO !!!!!!!

  77. Beauford A. Stenberg

    April 4, 2021 at 10:24 am

    If we see significant advance in this field of cellular bioelectrical engineering through charged ions it will be grappled with by bioethics, thankfully and hopefully.

  78. Sonnentau1

    April 4, 2021 at 11:36 am

    Thats very nice from the body to offer an API.

  79. celestialcircledance

    April 4, 2021 at 12:18 pm

    Gee I’d hate to die before they start testing anti aging on humans . It all sounds cutting edge and exciting and fascinating but the question that concerns me is always when ? !!

  80. hootsmin

    April 4, 2021 at 4:29 pm

    This work builds on the work done by scientists like Dr Robert Becker who’s excellent book “The Body Electric” is a great read and goes into more detail over limb and organ regeneration. Time all the scientists and doctors realise that the body is electric and stop nuking everyone with dangerous electromagnetic technology.

  81. Brannon Harris

    April 4, 2021 at 5:21 pm

    I’ll take a third arm please and thank you.

  82. The Last Descendent

    April 5, 2021 at 2:34 am

    Ted talk
    Can we have Hans Forsberg on ted talk?. His training wild birds to pick up rubbish for exchange for food. We are going to have the world clean in no time.

  83. jonahansen

    April 5, 2021 at 4:14 am

    This is bullshit.

  84. jonahansen

    April 5, 2021 at 4:19 am

    Wow – my incipient comment got dumped! This guy is a fraud, and the interviewer is either in on it, or is a total dufus. A bunch of buzzwords thrown around and a collection of clips from other science studies edited together. The guy even looks deranged. Perhaps an attempt to see how gullible viewers are. If it’s supposed to be an April fools joke, the date is wrong. What a bunch of crap. How did this get onto the TED channel. Is it not curated at all?

  85. Angstrom

    April 5, 2021 at 4:49 am

    Our entire body is a brain? Is that where “gut” feelings come from, it’s the core of our whole body “brain”?

  86. Ismael Eye

    April 5, 2021 at 7:56 am

    OMG……….in 10 years, nothing will be the same.

  87. Tuhin James Paul

    April 5, 2021 at 8:24 am

    Great .

  88. Umut Karakurt

    April 5, 2021 at 12:28 pm

    Why the whole world is not talking about this right now? The results will have great impacts on many institutions!.. Oh right, humans are stupid.

  89. Tomasz Tomasz

    April 5, 2021 at 12:56 pm

    Funny but in 1985 there was a book titled – the body electric . Mindblowing that it took science 25 years to discover 5% of What it is in that book ?;)

  90. DELV IN

    April 5, 2021 at 6:33 pm

    Winter soldiers are comming guise

  91. triniMahn

    April 5, 2021 at 7:59 pm

    These educated fools will end up destroying millions of years of self-assembled beauty.

  92. Andy Zhang

    April 6, 2021 at 12:04 am

    looks like hes regenerated his hair already

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