Seeing Emergent Physics Behind Evolution — Interview with Nigel Goldenfeld

Quanta Magazine recently spoke with Goldenfeld about collective phenomena, expanding the Modern Synthesis model of evolution, and using quantitative and theoretical tools from physics to gain insights into mysteries surrounding early life on Earth and the interactions between cyanobacteria and predatory viruses. A condensed and edited version of that conversation follows.

Quanta Magazine
Seeing Emergent Physics Behind Evolution
Interview with Nigel Goldenfeld, Swanlund Endowed Chair and Center for Advanced Study Professor in Physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), Director of the NASA Astrobiology Institute for Universal Biology at UIUC, and head of the Biocomplexity Group at the University's Institute for Genomic Biology