Sep 23, 2020
Nathalie Gontier is a
philosopher of science who specializes in evolutionary theory with
a focus on
viruses and immune system coevolution. This podcast adds a new
angle to Richard's special series exploring viral spread and
behavior in preparation for his book.
She explores
Nathalie Gontier is the founder
and director of the
Applied Evolutionary Epistemology
Lab at the University of
Lisbon in Portugal. She's a returning guest and spends this
discussion digging deeper into virus types, evolution, and
behavior. She's very interested in viruses because they are one of
most common parasites that every life form has to cope with.
She studies how that interaction occurs and does this work
alongside scientists to conceptualize this form of interaction with
the hope of increasing our understanding. She establishes from the
beginning that
viruses do not exclude any form of life from their activity and
live inside the cells of archaea, bacteria, and all
eukaryotes.
She addresses COVID-19 directly,
noting that it is way up in the food chain of the virus domain. She
comments that it is amazing how one virus can spread and effect so
many people quickly as we approach about one million dead from
COVID-19 worldwide. Then she tackles some of Richard's tough
questions regarding
viruses, but gives answers quite different from previous guests
with her science philosophy perspective.
She has solid details to back up her answers, such as a study in
Israel that proved quorum sensing and viruses' ability to
communicate about whether to attack their biological host. She ends
with an elegant description of their place in our human bio system.
Listen in for some sharp discussion and commentary about
viruses.
For more about her work, see
the
Applied Evolutionary Epistemology
Lab page and find her
YouTube channel.
Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0my