i just happen to listen to the “Stochasticity” Radiolab episode a couple of days ago. It’s a very informative episode (as usual) from the Radiolab team. your interview struck a chord with me when you described the “sloppiness” of signals at the gene-level — out of noise (or imbedded in the noise) comes order. when I heard your fascinating description the first question that came to my mind is: can we (humans) subjectively experience or feel the signals at the gene-level? how does it feel like if we can experience this noise at the gene-level?

then i remember that in (Theravada) Buddhism there is a concept called “kalapas.” see for details – http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/khin/wheel231.html
here’s a description of a kalapa:

“The real meaning of Anicca is that Impermanence or Decay is the inherent nature of everything that exists in the Universe — whether animate or inanimate. The Buddha taught His disciples that everything that exists at the material level is composed of “Kalapas.” Kalapas are material units very much smaller than atoms, which die out immediately after they come into being. Each kalapa is a mass formed of the eight basic constituents of matter, the solid, liquid, calorific and oscillatory, together with color, smell, taste, and nutriment. The first four are called primary qualities, and are predominant in a kalapa. The other four are subsidiaries, dependent upon and springing from the former. A kalapa is the minutest particle in the physical plane — still beyond the range of science today. It is only when the eight basic material constituents unite together that the kalapa is formed. In other words, the momentary collocation of these eight basic elements of behavior makes a man just for that moment, which in Buddhism is known as a kalapa. The life-span of a kalapa is termed a moment, and a trillion such moments are said to elapse during the wink of a man’s eye. These kalapas are all in a state of perpetual change or flux. To a developed student in Vipassana Meditation they can be felt as a stream of energy.”

based on the above description, the kalapa is at the sub-atomic level (not the gene-level). then again, since the “state of perpetual change or flux” also happens at the gene-level, it’s possible that what the Buddhists describe as a stream of energy can also be subjectively experienced at the gene-level.

so what’s my point? i just find this parallel very intriguing. modern science sheds light on the objective nature of reality, while contemplative science (specifically Buddhist practice) enables one to have a subjective experience of the nature of reality (or so they claim). maybe someday these two complimentary objective/subjective approaches will be integrated into a more complete scientific investigation of life and the nature of reality.

take care and keep up the great work!

~C

It’s easy sometimes to think of bacteria and molecules as little machines that always behave one way – but when you start getting down to the molecular scale of life, things are always bumping around and making temporary connections – it just looks uniform because usually we observe the average of billions of events in a test-tube or on agar. Really enjoyed that post. I’d love to write one of my own sometime in the future and link to those articles, if you don’t mind.