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DNA不是「生命源代碼」？他破解了真相？這可能是今年最重大的發現……| 自說自話的總裁 — Transcript

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0:00Welcome to the President of Self-Speak
0:02and Self-Talk.
0:03If I hadn't seen this description with
0:05my own eyes in an academic journal, I
0:07would never have believed it was true.
0:10Just like Xingtian in the Classic of
0:11Mountains and Seas, who used his nipples
0:14as eyes and navel as a mouth, this frog
0:16actually sees the world through an eye
0:17on its backside. Yet, like Xingtian, it
0:20is 100%non-genetically modified and
0:22entirely natural. But how is this even
0:24possible?
0:25From childhood, biology textbooks have
0:27taught us that the number of eyes you
0:29have or why you don't have three heads
0:31and six arms is all hard-coded in your
0:33DNA.
0:34But if this is correct, how could these
0:36frogs 'genes be programmed to grow an
0:38eye on their rear end?
0:40Could the myths of Xingtian and others
0:42not be madness, but rather evidence of
0:44some deeper biological mechanism?
0:46For the past 30 years, Professor Michael
0:48Levin, who created this frog, has been
0:50using a series of such crazy experiments
0:52to constantly challenge the common sense
0:54of modern biology.
0:56Not only does he make animals grow
0:58complete organs in bizarre locations, he
1:00has sliced organisms into over 200
1:02pieces, creating two-headed creatures
1:04that remain two-headed for generations.
1:07He even used a group of simple skin
1:09cells to create living robots— "
1:11xenobots"—that have never existed in
1:13Earth's history and are capable of
1:15self-replication.
1:17So, what exactly did he discover?
1:20Let's talk about it today.
1:24In 1969, Levin was born in Moscow to a
1:26normal Jewish family of engineers. As a
1:29child, his family went to great lengths
1:31to immigrate to the United States, but
1:33Levin suffered from severe asthma and
1:35was confined to the living room floor
1:37every day, unable to go anywhere.
1:40To distract his son from the pain, his
1:41engineer father took apart an old
1:43black-and-white television in front of
1:45him, showing him the dense circuit
1:47boards and hundreds of gray components
1:49squeezed together, saying, "Look, every
1:51part here is dead, but as soon as you
1:53turn the power on, cartoons play on the
1:55screen."
1:57At that moment, a seed was planted in
1:59young Levin's mind that would haunt him
2:01forever: the parts are hardware, the
2:03images are software; could it be that
2:04everything miraculous in the world
2:06operates this way?
2:08Later, Levin got into Tufts University
2:10and achieved the unprecedented feat of
2:12earning degrees in both developmental
2:13biology and computer science.
2:16However, when these two disciplines met
2:18in his mind, it sparked a world-upending
2:20question: Could DNA simply be the
2:22hardware, while the software controlling
2:24biological development has yet to be
2:26discovered?
2:27DNA is just proteins, and proteins are
2:29like bags of cement and bricks left on a
2:31vacant lot. Without the blueprint held
2:34by the foreman, how could this pile of
2:36material possibly build itself into a
2:38three-story villa?
2:39In 1999, when 30-year-old Levin was a
2:41postdoc at Harvard University, he
2:43decided to continue researching these
2:45topics. At the time, the mainstream
2:47scientific community proposed a "cilia
2:49hypothesis," suggesting that the heart
2:51grows on the left because a row of cilia
2:53in the embryo's belly acts like oars,
2:55pushing chemical molecules to the left,
2:57thereby activating the switch for heart
2:59development on that side. But Levin
3:01always felt something was wrong with
3:02that.
3:05From the perspective of computer science
3:07, wouldn't that be like building a
3:08skyscraper, finishing the foundation and
3:10structural framework, only for the chief
3:12engineer to pull a small electric fan
3:14out of their pocket and say, "Let's see
3:16which way the wind blows to decide where
3:17to build the living room and where to
3:19put the bathroom"?
3:22The underlying architecture of life
3:24couldn't possibly be so sloppy.
3:27That first stroke determining left from
3:29right must have been made the very
3:31second life began.
3:33How was Levin to prove all this?
3:36One night, in the quiet of his
3:37laboratory, Levin used an alcohol burner
3:39to create glass electrodes dozens of
3:41times thinner than a human hair, then
3:43inserted two of them into an early frog
3:45embryo that had just divided into four
3:47cells.
3:48As expected, the instruments began to
3:51pulse.
3:52It had actually measured a faint voltage
3:53of several dozen millivolts existing
3:55between the cells on the left and right
3:57sides.
3:59Further research revealed that it was
4:00like a generator with nanometer bridges
4:02working on the cell membranes!
4:05They beat all genes and chemical
4:06molecules to the punch, using
4:08bioelectricity to strike the very first
4:10line of demarcation across the void of
4:12the body.
4:13In 2002, Levin published this paper in
4:15the journal*Cell*, and two years later,
4:17*Nature*magazine even hailed Levin's
4:19work as a major breakthrough of the 21st
4:22century. You would think this was the
4:24perfect script for a genius scientist to
4:25claim an academic throne, but the
4:27mainstream scientific community reacted
4:29with indifference. The elders simply
4:31patted Levin on the shoulder and said, "
4:33Doctor, your experiment is interesting,
4:35but as for the master of life, that is
4:37obviously still the gene. Don't waste
4:39your time going down this dead end."
4:41This was because it was an era when DNA
4:43and gene-centric studies were at their
4:45peak, and studying bioelectricity felt
4:47like something out of 200-year-old
4:49Frankenstein stories—to them, it was as
4:51absurd as electrocuting corpses.
4:55All the funding, the applause, and the
4:57faculty positions were focused on
4:58genetics, so for a long time, Levin
5:00couldn't even get into the core biology
5:02departments of top universities.
5:05During those difficult times, he finally
5:07managed to scrape together some
5:08sponsorship and set up his own
5:10independent lab, but where was the lab?
5:12It was actually in the basement of a
5:14dental clinic in Boston.
5:16Just like that, a genius determined to
5:18crack the mysteries of life was thrown
5:20into the gutter before he could even put
5:22on his armor.
5:24Yet, this only made the questions in his
5:26heart firmer: if these microvolt
5:27voltages don't just determine left and
5:29right, but the entire blueprint of life
5:31, how can I prove this blueprint exists
5:33?
5:39Time? Ten years passed in the blink of
5:41an eye. By 2012, frost had already crept
5:43up Levin's arms, but the mainstream
5:45biological world was still lost in the
5:47carnival of gene sequencing. Before,
5:49everyone believed that embryonic
5:51development was like a mindless assembly
5:53line, where genes command eye cells to
5:55move two millimeters to the right and
5:57jaw cells to extend three millimeters
5:58downward, locking into place. It was
6:01like IKEA furniture—slot A into slot B,
6:03B into hole C. If one step went wrong,
6:05the whole table was destined to be a
6:07crooked deformity. But by this time,
6:09Levin had already prepared the most
6:11visual evidence for them. These were
6:13some monsters known as "Picasso tadpoles
6:15."
6:16Because they were artificially deformed
6:18during the early embryonic stage, their
6:19faces looked like Picasso paintings:
6:21eyes that should have been on top moved
6:23under the chin, the mouth grew directly
6:25on top of the head, and the nostrils
6:27even flew to the back of the neck.
6:29According to dogma, these deformed
6:31little monsters had only one fate: to
6:33grow increasingly distorted and die
6:35prematurely. However, Levin didn't
6:37discard them; instead, he applied 24-
6:39hour uninterrupted imaging to them. The
6:41footage made everyone gasp.
6:43Those eyes on the chin actually began to
6:45move on their own, slowly sliding toward
6:48their upward socket positions.
6:50The mouth on top of the head moved
6:52downward bit by bit, and the nose
6:53bypassed the skeletal obstacles,
6:55converging toward the center.
6:58These scrambled features just wobbled
6:59their way back to their correct
7:01positions.
7:03The moment the tadpole finally
7:04transformed into a frog, what remained
7:06in the tank was a perfectly normal frog
7:08with well-proportioned features. Now
7:10things were getting serious; how on
7:12earth did Levin do it? Actually, this is
7:14the most terrifying part of the entire
7:16experiment. Levin didn't actually do
7:18anything; he simply created a malformed
7:20frog embryo and then left it alone.
7:23He didn't modify its genes or apply
7:25electrical signals; the cells grew back
7:27completely on their own.
7:29Levin wanted to use this phenomenon to
7:31prove to the world that a body is
7:33definitely not a piece of flat-pack
7:34furniture.
7:37Thousands of cells clearly hold an
7:38ultimate blueprint for a standard frog
7:40face, and they correct themselves
7:42against that plan.
7:44But this claim is ridiculous; if the
7:46blueprint exists, how can you let us see
7:48it with our own eyes?
7:50Next, Levin brought out his trump card:
7:52fluorescent voltage-sensitive dyes. He
7:54soaked the embryo in these dyes.
7:57If a cell had a high surface voltage, it
7:59would glow with a piercing fluorescence
8:01; if the voltage was low, it would dim.
8:04What appeared afterward was a shocking
8:05sight that left the entire scientific
8:07community in silence. Ah, this was the
8:09later world-famous "electric face."
8:12On those chaotic embryos that originally
8:14had no facial features at all, as the
8:16dye took effect, a face glowing with a
8:18faint fluorescent light appeared out of
8:20thin air.
8:22Where eyes should grow, where the mouth
8:23should indent, and the exact position of
8:25the nostrils were all clearly outlined
8:27in the darkness by weak electrical
8:29voltages.
8:30The cells hadn't even begun to
8:32differentiate, and the flesh was still
8:33just a blob, yet that incredible
8:35bioelectric blueprint was precisely
8:37projected onto the surface of the embryo
8:39.
8:40This was the first time humanity had
8:42seen the "stamp" that authorizes
8:44construction to begin on the flesh.
8:47But is this blueprint we see really real
8:49?
8:50How can you prove its authenticity?
8:52So, Levin did that world-shaking,
8:54groundbreaking thing: he took the
8:56specific electrical signal for
8:57eye-building from the blueprint and
8:59injected it directly into the tail area
9:01of a frog embryo with a needle. A few
9:03days later, a ground-breaking and
9:05astonishing frog was born.
9:07Its genes hadn't been changed by a
9:09single letter, yet a fully developed eye
9:11had opened on its tail.
9:13What’s terrifying is that the tadpoles
9:15you see didn't even have their eyes
9:17connected to their brains, but rather to
9:19their spinal cords and gut neural
9:20networks.
9:22Yet, these tadpoles could see with the
9:24eyes on their tails and learned to avoid
9:26danger in a complex maze. At this moment
9:29, Levin was ecstatic.
9:31Humanity had not only seen the blueprint
9:33, but we could even copy and paste the
9:35organ subroutines from the blueprint to
9:37run anywhere.
9:38So, how these eyes actually see is
9:40something no one knows.
9:43It seems our spinal cords and gut nerves
9:45were able to read the electrical signals
9:46sent by the optic nerves on the spot.
9:50Even Levin himself lamented in later
9:52interviews that this is inconceivable in
9:54the logic of evolution.
9:57A tadpole's brain and nervous system
9:59were never programmed by evolutionary
10:01history to anticipate an eye suddenly
10:03growing on its tail, yet the entire
10:05bodily system demonstrated an extremely
10:07tolerant and adaptable capacity; as long
10:09as the data flows in, the body itself
10:11knows how to run it.
10:15Just as the mainstream scientific
10:17community was marveling at this series
10:18of miracles, Levin himself fell into
10:20confusion, because he discovered
10:22something else from the experiments.
10:27Since.
10:30Since Levin could directly call the
10:32eye-building program in a tail embryo,
10:33he wondered: if he injected the
10:35eye-building code into all eight cells
10:37when the zygote had just divided,
10:39wouldn't it grow into one giant eye?
10:43But after the experiment, there were no
10:45giant eyes in the tank.
10:48What he got was an alien frog covered
10:50with more than a dozen eyes all over its
10:52body, and every eye was exactly the
10:54standard, normal size of a frog's eye.
10:58So, does this suggest that local
11:00subroutines like eye-building cannot
11:02override the body's global architecture
11:03?
11:05Is there a "red line" in the frog's
11:07global system that dictates how big eyes
11:09can be, and that a frog must remain a
11:11frog?
11:12How could Levin prove this?
11:15Obviously, he could no longer use frogs
11:17to prove it; frogs are embryos, and you
11:19can't test adult bodies—or rather, you
11:22can't test the situation after that
11:23global architecture has already formed.
11:26So, Levin had to find something else
11:28that could still be modified like a frog
11:30embryo even after reaching adulthood.
11:34Very soon, Levin found one of the most
11:36bizarre mysteries in biological history
11:38: the planarian. This is a strange
11:40creature that has lived on Earth for 400
11:42million years, one that even the Grim
11:43Reaper can't handle. It is immortal, has
11:45no senescence, and continues itself
11:47through the infinite division of stem
11:49cells. Physically, the planarians we use
11:51in experiments today are the same
11:52individuals as their ancestors from 400
11:54million years ago. Their regenerative
11:56capacity is extremely formidable; cut
11:58them in two and they become two, or chop
12:00them into over 200 tiny fragments, and
12:01each piece can reassemble itself into a
12:03complete planarian. And they are even
12:05more bizarre: a planarian that has
12:06learned to navigate a maze will still be
12:08able to navigate it even after its head
12:10is cut off and a new one grows back.
12:12Even if you feed the minced remains of
12:13the trained worm to a new one, the new
12:15planarian can also navigate the maze. We
12:17will discuss these bizarre planarian
12:19experiments in detail next Tuesday.
12:22In short, for over a century, textbooks
12:24have offered a lackluster explanation
12:26for planarian regeneration called the
12:27chemical concentration gradient theory:
12:29the body contains certain molecules with
12:31high concentrations at the head and low
12:33at the tail, so after cutting, the cells
12:35grow a head where the concentration is
12:37high and a tail where it is low.
12:40But Levin didn’t agree, because he had
12:42devised an unprecedented cutting method
12:44: first, snip off the head and discard
12:46it, then move back one millimeter and
12:48snip again to remove and discard the
12:50tail.
12:53That one-millimeter slice is only a few
12:55dozen cells thick, so if it were really
12:57a chemical concentration gradient, the
12:59molecules would diffuse evenly within
13:00seconds; where would the gradient even
13:02come from?
13:05Yet after countless experiments, the
13:07result was always the same: the front
13:09cut always grew a head, and the back cut
13:11always grew a tail, without exception;
13:13so, separated by only a few dozen cells
13:15, how exactly do they divide the labor?
13:18Levin proposed a subversive inference:
13:20it’s not based on chemical concentration
13:22at all, but on bioelectricity. Inside
13:24this one-millimeter slice, the cells are
13:26connected by countless telephone lines
13:28called gap junctions. After being sliced
13:31, the cells at the front cut (Cell A)
13:33checked their voltage and found
13:34themselves at the high-potential end, so
13:36they broadcast to the entire network: "
13:38I am at the high potential, and I will
13:40be responsible for growing a new head."
13:42Meanwhile, the cells at the rear cut (
13:44Cell B), separated by only a few dozen
13:46cells, realized they were at the
13:48low-potential end and replied, "I am
13:50downstream, and I will grow a tail to
13:52complement you." With a head and a tail
13:54, a new planarian thus grew out from the
13:56center of that one-millimeter-thick
13:58slice. But how can we prove the
13:59existence of these telephone lines?
14:03Levin thought of a special chemical
14:05blocking agent that could instantly kill
14:06all the gap junctions on the cell
14:08membranes, effectively cutting off their
14:10local network within the entire slice.
14:14The experiment began, and you can
14:15imagine the state of the cells after
14:17going "offline": the cells at the front
14:19(Cell A) followed their pre-set program
14:21to start building a head. But what about
14:23the cells at the rear (Cell B)? With the
14:26network down, they received no signal,
14:27and in the underlying logic of
14:29bioelectricity, whenever any cut is
14:31injured and fails to receive a global
14:33signal, its default factory setting is
14:34an instinctive self-rescue: build a head
14:36right there, otherwise the tail cannot
14:38survive. So, after 72 hours, Levin took
14:41the slices out, rinsed them clean, and
14:43placed them back into regular water to
14:45grow. A few days later, under the
14:47microscope, a two-headed monster was
14:49indeed born.
14:51The second head that suddenly grew had
14:52fully formed features and could control
14:54the body, so one body with two heads
14:56spun frantically in the water.
14:59At this point in the story, you might
15:02say two-headed planarians are nothing
15:04new; back in 1903, American Nobel
15:06laureate Thomas Morgan had already
15:08accidentally created them using highly
15:10concentrated saltwater.
15:12The real issue is that since 1903, for a
15:15full 114 years, no one had been able to
15:17replicate Thomas's two-headed planarians
15:20.
15:20The two-headed planarians everyone else
15:22created were either genetically modified
15:24monsters or deformed freaks of drug
15:26toxicity. So when colleagues saw Levin's
15:28two-headed planarians, they just assumed
15:30he picked the right potion and
15:32temporarily poisoned the worms; it was
15:34just a temporary physiological deformity
15:36, and since their DNA hadn't changed,
15:37their offspring couldn't possibly be
15:39two-headed. "If you're so sure, cut it
15:41again, let's see.""Fine, let's see then
15:44." In 2017, with the eyes of his peers
15:46worldwide upon him, Levin cut his
15:48two-headed planarians.
15:51If the textbooks were right, after the
15:53wound healed, the incision should have
15:55grown two tails, but Levin's planarians
15:56remained two-headed monsters.
15:59Levin continued to cut the fourth, fifth
16:01, and tenth generations of descendants,
16:03and they always steadfastly grew two
16:05heads.
16:06How can this be explained? This is the
16:08collapse of DNA theory; Levin struck a
16:10heavy blow to genetic determinism with
16:13this single cut.
16:15Because these reconstructed DNAs were
16:17identical to their natural ancestors
16:19from 400 million years ago, without a
16:21single clip edited, yet after just a few
16:23dozen hours in that potion, they
16:25actually treated this tampered,
16:27erroneous blueprint as the truth of
16:29inheritance.
16:32Does this mean we have found the root
16:33access inside an adult body and can
16:35freely reflash it?
16:37The blueprint of the body does not exist
16:39in the hardware of the DNA at all, but
16:41is stored in that flowing bioelectric
16:43software network.
16:45What's even more terrifying is that
16:47among the first batch of worms soaked in
16:49the potion, there were a small number of
16:51seemingly normal survivors who looked
16:53perfectly fine with only one head and
16:54one tail.
16:57But when Levin shone fluorescent voltage
16:58dyes on them, he discovered that the
17:00voltage within their tails had actually
17:02been rewritten into head-level potential
17:04signals, meaning their underlying code
17:06had already been hacked, but the program
17:08running on the surface in memory hadn't
17:09had time to reset yet.
17:12So, what would happen if the system were
17:14rebooted at this point? Sure enough,
17:15after Levin made the cut, they actually
17:17grew into two-headed monsters according
17:19to the input information. What does this
17:21prove? It proves that genes controlling
17:24the body is only on the surface, and the
17:26dynamic electrical potential program is
17:27the phantom ghost truly hiding behind
17:29the scenes.
17:31If this worm didn't receive that cut, it
17:33would eat, excrete, and reproduce,
17:35looking no different from any ordinary
17:37worm, but in reality, every one of its
17:39cells has been written with a deeply
17:41latent electrical signal Trojan.
17:44It only takes one cut, one reboot, for
17:46it to execute the Trojan code, turning
17:48its own flesh into a monster that
17:50expresses the code.
17:52To this day, it has been a full 20 years
17:54.
17:55From being cast out as an academic
17:57heretic in a dental clinic basement to
17:59these two-headed planarians revealing
18:01the laws of heaven, Levin has finally
18:03slammed the iron-clad facts into the
18:05scientific community: the ultimate
18:07software controlling life forms runs
18:08completely independently of DNA, and we
18:11humans have found a way to access it—
18:13the bioelectric network.
18:15So, is this the "primordial qi" that the
18:17ancient Taoists spoke of? Who knows?
18:22Regardless, since Levin has found a way
18:25to access it, can we enter the human
18:26body to save patients?
18:30In 2016, Bill Gates' partner and
18:32Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen threw
18:34down 10 million dollars directly. He
18:36established a research center at Tufts
18:38University and personally appointed
18:40Levin as its head. Paul Allen’s money
18:42has always been invested in one type of
18:44person: those deemed lunatics by the
18:46scientific mainstream, but who—if
18:47successful—could subvert humanity's
18:49understanding of civilization. These
18:51fundamental innovators.
18:52Soon after receiving those 10 million
18:54dollars, the first thing Levin did was
18:56move on from small-scale invertebrates
18:58to start regenerating limbs for
18:59vertebrates.
19:01This time he chose the African clawed
19:03frog, an animal that, much like humans,
19:05completely loses its regenerative
19:07ability once it reaches adulthood.
19:10Mainstream science at the time was
19:11pursuing extremely complex paths for
19:14limb regeneration—injecting stem cells,
19:163D bioprinting collagen scaffolds, and
19:18precisely regulating hundreds of growth
19:20factors.
19:21The steps were tedious, the costs
19:23astronomical, and usually, all that grew
19:26back was a necrotic lump of flesh. Yet,
19:28Levin believed: Why should humans act as
19:30the foreman between cells?
19:32We don't need to teach cells how to lay
19:34bricks; they already collaborated to
19:36build a perfect leg once during the
19:38embryonic stage.
19:40The reason they don't regenerate after
19:41reaching adulthood isn't that they can't
19:43, but because the stump screams through
19:45the electrical network, "Seal the wound
19:47to prevent infection; this isn't the
19:49embryonic stage!"
19:51Levin decided to stop acting like an
19:53arrogant foreman and instead approached
19:55the wound like a diplomat, trying to
19:56persuade them.
20:00He urged them to stay calm, dig up the
20:02old blueprints, and resume construction
20:04without the body dying of infection.
20:08So, Levin designed a wearable miniature
20:10helmet for this negotiation, placed over
20:12the limb stump, containing a chemical
20:14cocktail of five compounds.
20:19This little helmet remained on the frog
20:21for not a year or months, but just a
20:23short 24 hours.
20:26A day later, the researchers removed the
20:28helmet, leaving the wound exposed to
20:30water for 18 full months without any
20:32drugs, and the results left the entire
20:34medical community speechless.
20:38The dormant morphogenetic program at the
20:40wound site was awakened; it grew little
20:42by little, bones redistributed, and
20:44dense blood vessels took root like tree
20:46roots into the new muscle.
20:49In the later stages, the end of the limb
20:51sprouted clearly visible partial toes
20:53and even the rudiments of nails.
20:56When researchers gently touched this
20:58newly grown toe, the frog jerked its leg
21:00back—the nerves were fully connected,
21:02and it had sensitive tactile reflexes.
21:05Placed in a pool, it kicked its legs and
21:07swam through the water with ease.
21:11In 2022, this achievement made headlines
21:13in the scientific community.
21:17A mere 24 hours of electrical signaling
21:19can yield 18 months of bodily...
21:24existence. In the eyes of modern
21:26medicine, cancer is a disaster of
21:28genetic mutations and infinite cell
21:30division.
21:31But according to Levin's bioelectric
21:33framework, the essence of cancer is
21:35actually a tragedy of lost memory.
21:37Think about it: billions of years ago,
21:39all life on Earth was single-celled,
21:41with the sole instinct to madly compete
21:43for nutrients and divide indefinitely.
21:47Later, multicellular life emerged, and
21:49trillions of cells had to band together
21:51into a grand body—but what kept this
21:53empire in order?
21:56Levin believes it is that bioelectric
21:58network spanning the entire body, where
22:00every cell constantly receives signals:
22:02"You belong to the whole body; do not
22:04act out of turn."
22:06So, what happens when cancer strikes?
22:08Levin's team discovered that when a cell
22:11is struck by an oncogene, the ion
22:12channels on its cell membrane shut down
22:14first, completely severing the gap
22:16junctions with its neighbors—the very "
22:18lines" seen in the planarian experiments
22:20.
22:21Once disconnected, the cell can no
22:23longer sense the existence of the
22:24companions surrounding it. In its
22:26perceived world, the vast body has
22:28vanished; it believes the world has
22:30reverted to the primordial state of 4.1
22:32billion years ago, so it triggers the
22:33most primitive survival instinct of
22:35cellular life: to eat frantically and
22:37reproduce madly.
22:38It doesn't want to destroy you; it
22:40simply thinks it is the only one left in
22:42the world.
22:44So, what if instead of killing it, we
22:46help it reconnect its "telephone line"
22:48again? Levin's team injected lethal
22:50human oncogenes into frog embryos, and
22:52sure enough, the cells began to divide
22:54uncontrollably, growing into malignant
22:56tumors.
22:57Next, by regulating specific ion
22:59channels, Levin forcibly altered the
23:00membrane potential of these cancer cells
23:02, gradually reconnecting the telephone
23:04lines to their neighbors.
23:08A miracle occurred: even though the
23:09oncogenes in the body were still
23:11expressing wildly and the protein
23:13concentrations remained off the charts,
23:15the tumors inexplicably stopped growing
23:17.
23:18The cancer cells obediently fell back
23:20into line, with those meant to form skin
23:22growing skin, and those meant to form
23:24muscle growing muscle.
23:28It didn't die; it was simply persuaded,
23:30remembering who it was and becoming once
23:32again a law-abiding citizen among the 37
23:34trillion cells of the body.
23:37By 2020, Levin revealed the "trump card
23:40" he had been preparing for 30 years.
23:44If life truly has root access and an
23:46operating system distinct from DNA, then
23:48once we gain access, are we limited to
23:50just regrowing limbs or treating cancer
23:52?
23:54Could we use living cells in the field
23:56of robotics to create life from scratch
23:58?
23:59In January 2020, Levin created the
24:01first-ever programmable robot made
24:04entirely of living cells in Earth's 4.1
24:06-billion-year history, codenamed "
24:08Xenobot."
24:10The manufacturing process for this robot
24:12is magical: first, a supercomputer runs
24:14evolutionary algorithms in a virtual
24:16world, simulating millions of iterations
24:18using virtual passive blocks and
24:20contractile muscle blocks like building
24:22blocks, eventually calculating the
24:24structure best suited for walking
24:26underwater—a horseshoe shape with two
24:28short legs.
24:30Then, researchers went to work under a
24:32microscope, scraping two things from an
24:34early-stage African clawed frog embryo:
24:36skin cells to provide a supporting frame
24:39, and heart muscle cells to serve as the
24:41motor.
24:43Soon after, the lab technicians followed
24:44the blueprints to hand-carve two short
24:46legs into this cluster of cells, and
24:48just like that, they placed it into the
24:50water.
24:51Then, an incredible scene unfolded: the
24:53heart muscle cells did not die off
24:55without a heart; they spontaneously
24:57began to beat in sync, and each
24:59contraction propelled those two manually
25:01carved legs to kick backward.
25:04This little monster, created from a
25:05layer of skin cells, actually began to
25:07crawl steadily along the bottom of the
25:09petri dish. It could not only walk, but
25:12it could also turn corners and pile
25:13scattered cellular debris into a single
25:15mass.
25:16If scientists cut it in two with a blade
25:18, within just two hours, it could even
25:20automatically heal itself like liquid
25:22metal. It's just too bizarre!
25:25Heart muscle cells have evolved for
25:27hundreds of millions of years with the
25:28sole purpose of forming a heart, but
25:30today, after humans extracted them from
25:32the frog’s overall order and installed
25:34them into a body that never existed in
25:36nature, they immediately accepted this
25:38new architecture and became the engine
25:40of a robot.
25:41Isn't this just the most fundamental
25:43root access privilege?
25:46We release the cells from their original
25:48system and reassign their tasks, and
25:49they immediately adapt to the new mode;
25:51Levin then pushed these robots into an
25:53even more unbelievable forbidden zone.
25:57In 2021, Levin asked the supercomputer:
25:59since these robots have no reproductive
26:01system, how on earth can we design them
26:03?
26:04Or rather, how can we shape them so that
26:06they can reproduce themselves within the
26:08water?
26:09After the AI calculated it, it came up
26:11with a microscopic, open-mouthed shape
26:13resembling Pac-Man from video games.
26:16Levin then sculpted his little robots
26:18into this Pac-Man model and tossed them
26:20into a petri dish filled with thousands
26:22of floating, loose single cells.
26:25What happened next was a scene destined
26:27to rewrite biological history: this
26:29group of Pac-Men, only a few hundred
26:31micrometers in size, began to swim,
26:32using their big mouths to collect the
26:34scattered single cells and continuously
26:36kneading and pressing them together in
26:38the groove of their "mouths."
26:40A few days later, the clump of cells
26:42kneaded out from their mouths grew its
26:44own cilia, detached from the parent,
26:46swam away, and became the second
26:47generation of living robots.
26:49Subsequently, the second generation
26:51kneaded out a third, and the third
26:53generation kneaded out—or rather,
26:55reproduced—a fourth. Scientists later
26:57called this "kinematic self-replication
26:59." It’s terrifying! In the 4-
27:02billion-year history of life on Earth,
27:04no organism has ever reproduced like
27:06this.
27:07But once the cells were placed in a
27:09brand-new environment, they
27:10spontaneously entered a specific state
27:12and invented this entirely new mode of
27:14survival and reproduction, even though
27:16their DNA is identical to that of
27:18today's frogs.
27:19So, what does this tell us?
27:21It shows that DNA is essentially just
27:23hardware soldered onto a motherboard; it
27:25is only responsible for providing the
27:27protein building blocks.
27:29The software, however, runs on the
27:31bioelectric network. Once cells detach
27:33from the whole and enter a "root" state
27:35, they can even develop entirely new
27:37modes of reproduction and survival.
27:40This proves that it is the program that
27:42adapts to the environment first, not the
27:44DNA hardware. Levin once used the
27:46analogy in an interview that cells are
27:48like musicians in a massive symphony
27:50orchestra—violinists, trombonists,
27:52timpanists.
27:53Everyone has an instrument in their
27:55hands, but not a single musician carries
27:57the complete score of the entire piece;
27:59they can only see the part they are
28:00playing themselves.
28:03And you, this complete, grand life form
28:05before us, are not any single violinist
28:07or trombonist.
28:10We are the flowing music created by the
28:12entire orchestra collaborating across
28:14space and time.
28:17The music doesn't reside in any single
28:19part, yet it truly governs the whole.
28:22Levin is also an expert free solo rock
28:24climber in his private life. Despite
28:26being nearly sixty, he still grinds his
28:28hands until they are raw and bloody
28:30against the rugged granite walls.
28:32But whenever he sits at the top of a
28:34cliff and looks at his hands, he is
28:36struck by a profound sense of awe.
28:39That skin scraped away by the rocks
28:41represents thousands of cells meeting
28:43their end in the microscopic world, yet
28:45as a macroscopic individual, the only
28:47things he feels in his heart are serene
28:49ecstasy and freedom.
28:52Perhaps that is life.
28:56And at this very moment, there are 37
28:58trillion tiny cellular lives inside your
29:00body working so that you can breathe,
29:02think, and finish watching this video
29:04today.
29:07They are the musicians, serving and
29:09sacrificing themselves in the
29:10microscopic world, and you are the piece
29:12they play throughout their lives.
29:16Music. Returning to reality, after
29:18discussing so many hacker-like life
29:20techniques, what is their actual
29:21significance in the real world? A host
29:23once asked Levin this question: "
29:25Professor Levin, you spend your days
29:27creating two-headed monsters, frogs with
29:29eyes on their backs, and living robots.
29:31Many people criticize you for playing
29:33God, even calling you a modern-day
29:35Frankenstein. What is the real driving
29:37force behind what you do?" Hearing this
29:39question, Michael Levin remained silent
29:41for a long time. He then cleared his
29:43desk, which was filled with handwritten
29:45letters of plea from all over the world
29:47.
29:47There were terminal cancer patients
29:49covered in tubes, war veterans who lost
29:51their legs in explosions, and desperate
29:53parents who had given birth to children
29:55with severe congenital defects.
29:58One letter came from an eight-year-old
30:00girl whose mother had a malignant brain
30:02tumor and had lost all her hair.
30:06The girl had drawn a crooked frog on the
30:08paper and wrote, "Uncle Scientist, I saw
30:10on TV that you can make little animals
30:12regrow their bodies.
30:16Please, can you send a magical little
30:18frog into my mother's brain to fix her
30:20..." Levin said this is the most
30:22difficult and painful part of his work
30:24because, as a rigorous scholar, he must
30:26face reality clearly.
30:29Today's science, even with their most
30:31cutting-edge laboratory achievements,
30:33still cannot provide these desperate
30:35families with an immediate, tangible
30:36miracle.
30:37However, he firmly believes that since
30:39this door has already been cracked open
30:41and the light has shone in, perhaps
30:43decades from now, humanity will finally
30:45learn to use the body's original
30:47language to persuade cells. As Levin
30:49spoke, I realized his mind was filled
30:52with various ancient Taoist concepts.
30:55Perhaps when they created the myths of
30:57Xingtian, they already knew all of this
30:58.
31:00Although they might not have understood
31:01what ion channels or transmembrane
31:03potentials were.
31:05They used the most primordial
31:06philosophical thoughts and the boldest
31:08ink to etch the secrets of life into
31:10bamboo slips.
31:11The body is not a slave to DNA; as long
31:13as life returns to its source, and as
31:15long as the curtain of chaos is drawn
31:17back once more. Life can miraculously
31:20regrow flesh. For instance, in ancient
31:22texts, besides Xingtian who regrew his
31:24body, there was Yaochong who was
31:26reconstructed from food, and Zhuanxu who
31:28was resurrected after being reshaped
31:30into a fish-like form by the North Wind
31:32.
31:33So, how many of these secrets did the
31:35ancients truly grasp through intuition?
31:38There are even more philosophical terms
31:40: "Taiyi Divine Water" for cells
31:42spontaneously entering a specific state
31:44, "Congenital Primordial Qi" to describe
31:46bioelectric networks, and this most
31:48vivid one that best embodies Levin’s
31:50philosophy of persuasion: "the body is
31:52not present."
31:54Levin’s latest research has moved beyond
31:56frogs and worms.
31:58They have directly utilized human
32:00trachea and lung cells to create the
32:02first generation of "living doctors"
32:04capable of bridging gaps in human nerve
32:06cells cultured in vitro.
32:08But that is another strange story that
32:10aligns even more closely with the
32:12philosophy of Laozi and Zhuangzi, which
32:14we will discuss in detail on our members
32:16'channel.
32:18Alright, that's all for today's story.
32:29Finally, my wife said it felt gross at
32:31first, but the more

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