What Is Life? #8: Can We Make Life?

“What Is Life?” is an eight-episode podcast series recorded in front of a live audience. (Subscribe to the podcast at iTunes, via RSS, etc.)

In this episode, I spoke to Kate Adamala, a chemist at the University of Minnesota. In her Protobiology Lab, she is trying to build a synthetic cell from scratch. We talk about whether it is possible to make life, and what that could tell us about life itself.

Update: If you’d like to learn more about scientists exploring the borderlands between the living and nonliving worlds, check out my new book Life’s Edge: The Search For What It Means To Be Alive.

Links:
Protobiology Lab
Adamala’s TEDx talk, “Life But Not Alive”

This is the final episode of What Is Life? You can find links to all eight episodes (and show notes) here. And please spread the word however you can, such as reviewing it on Apple and elsewhere!

What Is Life? was recorded in front of a live audience at Caveat in New York and is supported by a grant from Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation initiative. Artwork by Caryn Audenried.