#127 Meet the Neuroscientist Who Gave A Brain to Michael Levins Xenobot’s

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Haleh Fotowat is a neuroscientist who builds nervous systems from
scratch — the scientist who gave neurons to Michael Levin's
xenobots, the living robots made from frog cells. When those
neurons self-organised into a working nervous system, they
switched on genes for eyes, in a creature that has never had eyes
and never existed in nature.


Expect to learn how a clump of frog skin cells becomes a moving
biological robot, why these cells secretly default to becoming
neurons unless their neighbours stop them, what happened when the
neurons grew axons and reached out for the body, why every
neurobot develops its own movement personality, how a brainless
blob forces you to redefine agency and goals, why the neurons
switched on genes for eyes despite having none, what a seizure
drug revealed about which biobots truly have nervous systems,
what might happen if you gave the neurobots DMT, and much more


…


Timestamps


0:00:00 Trailer


0:02:05 What Is a Neurobot?


0:02:39 Building a Living Robot From Frog Cells


0:08:46 Why These Cells Secretly Want to Be Neurons


0:10:48 What's the Point of This Research?


0:16:26 Brain Cells in a Dish Playing Doom


0:18:16 A Warehouse Full of Human Neurons


0:19:16 What Happened When the Neurons Grew


0:21:36 The Neurons Reached Out for the Body


0:25:51 Why Each Neurobot Has Its Own Personality


0:28:51 Can a Blob of Neurons Have Goals?


0:39:42 Braitenberg's Vehicles: Complexity From Simplicity


0:42:25 Biology Is Cognition All the Way Down


0:49:12 The Eyes That Shouldn't Exist


0:54:18 Xenobots Grew Genes for Hearing


1:01:16 The Role of Bioelectricity


1:04:02 One Question for Michael Levin


1:06:53 What If You Gave the Neurobots DMT?


1:07:27 The Seizure Drug That Surprised Everyone...


...


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GS Episodes Mentioned


Michael Levin — Meet the Scientist Creating New Forms of
Synthetic Life! Dr Michael Levin:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTBZRVKUwyM


Brett Kagan — Meet The Neuroscientist Creating New Forms of
Sentient Biological Intelligence:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXlJc4tu1F8


Philip Ball — Biology Is Infinitely Weirder Than We Thought:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SseGx0R0fY


Josh Bongard — Meet The Scientist Who Created The First Living
Robot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3h908uoH6n4


Guest Links


Allen Discovery Center (Tufts) Profile:
https://allencenter.tufts.edu/our-team/haleh-fotowat-ph-d/Art
Website: http://www.halehfotowat.com


Google Scholar:
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=W5KTeEMAAAAJLinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/haleh-fotowat/


ResearchGate:
https://www.researchgate.net/scientific-contributions/Haleh-Fotowat-2245482149