"Mind-Blowing Discoveries by a Biologist: Nautilus Unveils"
Michael Levin, a developmental biologist at Tufts University, has been studying the remarkable abilities of various organisms. He has shown that frog skin cells can reassemble into a new organism called a xenobot, demonstrating the latent abilities of living things. Levin also discovered that flatworms can regrow two heads and that electrical signaling is pervasive in nature. He found that diseases might be cured by retraining gene and protein networks, similar to training a neural network. Levin's research on slime mold revealed that it can make decisions based on a calculus of payoff and can slow down other organisms to its level. He believes that organisms have latent abilities that can be coaxed out by altering their circumstances, and that there are degrees of agency all around us.