Dr. Will Ratcliff is an evolutionary biologist, professor, and researcher pioneering groundbreaking experiments in evolutionary biology and synthetic biology.Understanding how complex life evolved from single-celled organisms is one of biology's greatest mysteries. By evolving yeast from simple single cells into increasingly complex multicellular forms in his laboratory, Dr. Ratcliff is unlocking the fundamental rules that govern evolution itself. So how does life go from microscopic simplicity to stunning complexity, and what secrets are hidden within evolutionary leaps?Expect to learn how scientists forced yeast to evolve multicellularity, why evolution doesn't always mean increasing complexity, how yeast astonishingly evolved from fragile clusters into structures as strong as wood, why synthetic biology can create solar-powered yeast using whale DNA, how evolution can surprisingly move backward from multicellular to unicellular, why group selection is a misunderstood and vital concept, how the evolution of cooperation and altruism actually works, what myths about evolution we should abandon, and much more…...00:00 Meet the Scientist Evolving Life in a Lab01:01 How Single Cells Became Complex Life02:35 The 50,000-Generation Evolution Experiment05:12 Why Evolution Is Shockingly Unpredictable08:33 Could Yeast Evolve into Something Unrecognizable?11:25 Why Evolution Keeps Creating Similar Species14:03 What Most People Get Wrong About Evolution17:31 Ordering DNA Online Like an Amazon Package20:20 How Whale DNA Created Solar-Powered Yeast23:18 Why Most Genetic Mutations Fail27:52 The Strange Truth About Human Uniqueness31:15 How Multicellularity Evolved Over and Over34:10 Why Cells Sacrifice Themselves for the Group37:45 Does Evolution Ever Go Backwards?41:17 Defining Life: What Really Makes an Individual?45:09 Cancer: When Cells Rebel Against the Body49:34 Group Selection: Evolution’s Misunderstood Concept53:22 Why Evolution Doesn't Always Mean Progress57:30 How Complex Organisms Can Lose Complexity1:01:07 Why Animals Don't Return to Single-Cell Life (But Fungi Do)1:05:14 Mycelium Networks: Intelligence Underground1:08:26 LUCA: Searching for Life’s Universal Ancestor1:12:50 Could Complex Life Exist on Other Planets?1:16:03 Synthetic Biology: Redesigning Life from Scratch1:19:45 What Evolution Teaches Us About Cooperation1:23:20 Why Some Organisms Are Evolutionary Dead Ends1:27:05 Could Humans Engineer Entirely New Forms of Life?1:31:33 The Future of Lab-Grown Evolution1:36:10 Could Lab Evolution Create Consciousness?1:40:02 The Most Surprising Results from Evolution Experiments1:45:15 Why Predicting Evolution is Almost Impossible1:50:06 How Synthetic Organisms Could Solve Global Problems1:54:20 The Philosophical Implications of Creating Life...Follow My Neuroscience Podcast - The Giants Shoulder Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5m3Gta5MtIYdk59pb2GJ7M?si=b33232eae67b4126Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/brief-enquiry-to-the-brain/id1752486249

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