Abstract:
Metabolism is the veritable engine of life, driving the mind-boggling complexity of life-forms and their function -- single organisms can range in size from a few hundred nanometers (bacteria, archaea) to 10s of meters (blue whales) to even hundreds of kilometers (pando); very little needs to be said of the complexity of organismal function! In this talk, I will contrast this complexity and scale of living systems, with seemingly simple scaling relationships that may underlie how organisms metabolise, raising the tantalising possibility of underlying universality spanning most of extant life. Why should such simple relationships exist and what do they mean? I will also briefly touch upon what this might mean not only for how organisms live, but also for how they die and go dormant.
About The Speaker:
Shashi Thutupalli is a physicist/biologist spending his time between NCBS and ICTS in Bengaluru. His research aims for a broad understanding of the origins and organization of living systems. His research group combines experimental and theoretical techniques drawn from physics, engineering and biology. He is also interested in the study of active evolvable matter.
