Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas 175 | William Ratcliff on Multicellularity, Physics, and Evolution
Nov 29, 2021
Join William Ratcliff, a leading mind in AI and evolution, as he unpacks the fascinating journey from unicellular to multicellular life. Ratcliff examines how certain yeast cells evolve to form complex structures and the pivotal role of oxygen in this transformation. He shares insights from long-term evolution experiments that reveal how multicellularity can spontaneously develop in the lab. Discover the fascinating interplay between physics and biology that shapes the diversity of life as we know it!
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Benefits of Multicellularity
- Multicellularity offers various benefits, including predator avoidance, metabolic cooperation, and resource competition.
- Photosynthetic organisms like algae benefit from multicellularity by overgrowing competitors for light.
The Oxygen Boost
- The great oxygenation event 2 billion years ago was followed by another oxygen boost.
- Will and Sean will discuss how yeast experiments might explain this second oxygen increase.
Snowflake Yeast Experiment
- Will Ratcliff, as a grad student, collaborated with Mike Travassano to evolve multicellularity in yeast.
- They used a simple selection experiment, incentivizing group formation by favoring faster settling yeast.