Mindscape 163 | Nigel Goldenfeld on Phase Transitions, Criticality, and Biology
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 31 พ.ค. 2024
- Patreon: / seanmcarroll
Blog post with audio player, show notes, and transcript: www.preposterousuniverse.com/...
Physics is extremely good at describing simple systems with relatively few moving parts. Sadly, the world is not like that; many phenomena of interest are complex, with multiple interacting parts and interesting things happening at multiple scales of length and time. One area where the techniques of physics overlap with the multi-scale property of complex systems is in the study of phase transitions, when a composite system transitions from one phase to another. Nigel Goldenfeld has made important contributions to the study of phase transitions in their own right (and mathematical techniques for dealing with them), and has also been successful at leveraging that understanding to study biological systems, from the genetic code to the tree of life.
Nigel Goldenfeld received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Cambridge. He currently holds the Chancellor's Distinguished Professorship in Physics at UC San Diego. Until recently he was a Swanlund Endowed Chair and Center for Advanced Study Professor in Physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Among his awards are the Xerox Award for research, the A. Nordsieck award for excellence in graduate teaching, and the American Physical Society’s Leo P. Kadanoff Prize. He is the co-founder of NumeriX, a company that specializes in high-performance software for the derivatives marketplace.
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This is the best episode you’ve done, Sean! Precise questions and clear answers, all while tying together observations of phenomena from different fields to get at a deeper question about the behavior of the universe. Thanks for continuing to give us this podcast.
00:00:00 Introduction
00:08:20 Phase transitions, Ising model, critical temperature
00:17:40 Renormalization group, correlation length
00:23:25 Radiation theory of Feynman, Schwinger, and Tomanaga
00:26:00 Infinities in phase transitions
00:28:24 Critical phenomena
00:30:46 Scale invariance
00:33:47 The puzzle in turbulent flows
00:39:10 Directed percolation
00:44:19 Universality classes
00:46:50 Critical points, predator-prey model
00:54:33 Why we find scale-free behavior in nature?
00:57:42 Phylogenetic trees, evolution, large scale interference
01:04:46 Tuning parameters to a critical point
01:05:52 Universality hinders predictability, the neutral model of ecology
01:11:00 How robust is life? At what speed life evolved?
01:17:05 Evolution is a phase transition
01:19:34 Design of the genetic code
01:27:47 Interdisciplinary research
01:29:58 Final comments
_faith in humanity renormalized._
@Saavestro Thanks. May you live long and prosper
@Saavestro
God exists and it's you
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Absolutely amazing episode. Thank you to both of you for this. Nigel's take on the purposeful reason for "life" in it's most non-egoist form was very mind opening and greatly appreciated in terms of, at the least, a basic understanding of all the wonder around us.
Thank you so much for this Pod, once again Sean. You are an absolute treasure and credit to the human race, along with all your peers. I hope to live long enough to see a day where society is guided by the wisdom and knowledge you've all selflessly dedicated to not only discovering, but communicating to the masses in a way that those less gifted can comprehend if they just take the time to grow.
this one was above my pay grade. I appreciate it but at times I felt like I was Charlie Brown and you guys were the teacher. I tried, I really did.
the beauty of it is you can replay it. over n over n over till ssslllloooooosh!!! yer brains on the walls.
When I was young and occupied by failing performance throughout grade school and beyond, I longed for something that would actually stimulate my innate curiosity about things.in a way that met my true potential. I had to wait until I was older and out of the prison that was grade school, to begin the real learning process on my own. Something that would actually stimulate my imagination to a level that satisfied my intellectual capabilities. Sean, you're podcasts give me the kind of content that would have given me that spark which could have satisfied my younger self to succeed. Thanks
I've never expected that listening to physics podcast will help me make a better coffee in the morning :)
it helps with the sex life as well, now i'm dating women who wear glasses. mmmm.
After hearing this episode, and Nigel saying, " I'm not really very smart...", I now question if I even know how to humble myself. Thank you for another of many existential crisis' Mr. Goldenfeld! 😂
Your guests meet my interests and present at my needed level of expertise almost every time Sean. Thank you!
You make great topics. Thanks a lot dear Sean Carroll👍
One of your most interesting podcasts ever imo.
Super brilliant discussion.
The latest podcast on emergence with Seth seems very pertinent to me in talking about phase transitions.
Absolutely loved every single word, all the subjects that interest me in one go...Brilliant!
I really enjoyed this talk.
Great episode, as always. Thanks Sean.
Is renormalization basically replacing infinite term stuff with real world experimental values, or only using n terms, etc?
Great interview
Issues of scale (power law etc) are pretty much *the* elephant in the room of critical issues, scientifically and maybe even metaphysically or ontologically, in my opinion. How the micro bleeds into the macro, how it all somehow fits together. With our limited perspectives as people, we only see a thin strip of a spectrum in pretty much any system; tough to see past that often with our ways of thinking, or being small, or not living long to see things change over longer periods of time, etc.
Why ontology? For mereological reasons?
@@PedroTricking Yeah pretty much.
It seems Sean is videocalling Nigel. I wonder if Sean could actually videorecord the talks to update in TH-cam, in a way that the interviwed person could show us some auxiliary slides, pictures, animations... Anyone else would love to see it? During exciting talks like this one, we always want to have more.
This and your David Wallace exchange!!!
Fascinating tapestry of discussion! The biological part reminded me of the book, “The Vital Question: Energy, Evolution, and the Origins of Complex Life “, by Dr. Nick Lane, (biochemist who leads the Origins of Life program at University College London. Hey! Maybe you could interview him!) You might want to check the book out yourself! It covers many science topics with lively discussion. Thanks again for the great interview.
Dr Goldenfield asserted the evolution of the ribosome was the critical step in the evolution of life. Endosymbiosis, a very special type of horizontal gene transfer is a close second. Didn't happen a long time after the evolution of the ribosome?
People love their pseudoscience, its so refreshing sometimes to step away from all that and just talk about something that's actually demonstrable.
Thank you
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this podcast seems incredibly profound while also requiring a lot of attention, hah
Where was Dr. Goldenfeld when I was a junior in Chemical Engineering (1980)?
As a current junior in chemical engineering, the discussion of turbulent flow in pipes was really interesting, but I found the lack of empirical correlations disturbing😂
@@RonVolkovinsky What I loved was Dr. Goldenfeld actually explained why one of my fluid flow lab experiments didn't work very well, lol
Professor Carroll, I'm still waiting for your program about professor Weinberg
Yes ...... First!
I'm your big big Fan professor Carroll
I've seen faces in water, that much I understood
Who can say no to listen to an intelligent discussion? Only idiots. 😄 Love this. Thank you Sean. 👍
Interesting topic but lousy acoustic. A pity.
How would you rate peloton bikes in their "eats your children" ability?
i just rushed over from rationality rules cos i think i just solved one of the biggest questions you can ask: why something rather than nothing??
how about this, there was nothing. once upon a time there was nothing in OUR universe, the universe we now inhabit. but somewhere else there was something, then for whatever reason, big bang!! now there is a universe with nothing in it, and us. glue that to penrose CCC - problem solved. there was nothing, the something was somewhere else, they swap places.
RR is a great channel. Careful with your hypothesis though, someone might use it to justify their favorite deity.
There are some interesting topics here though. Consider a wave in the ocean, the individual particles of water shift up and down but don't move significantly. But the wave moves. The wave then is an emergent description of what the particles are doing.
If I understand things correctly, matter is much the same. The field doesn't move, it just changes value as a particle "moves" through it.
If a particle is a value that propagates through a field, then in an ontological sense as we move through space we are something different than what we were moments before.
Kind of like a quantum scale ship of theseus.
I could be wrong about that, please feel free to correct if I've misunderstood