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What Can a Cell Remember?

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What Can a Cell Remember?

The Quanta Podcast

2025/10/07
The Quanta Podcast

The Quanta Podcast

2025/10/07
OverviewShownoteHighlightsTranscriptChaptersPins

Shownote

“Memory” means many things to many people, and in many fields. We tend to understand memory to be a phenomenon that happens primarily in the brain, but in recent years, researchers have understood memory as a physical phenomenon that can occur in plenty of...

Highlights

What if memory isn't just a function of the brain, but a fundamental feature of life itself? Emerging research is revealing that even single cells—lacking nervous systems—can retain information, adapt behavior, and respond to patterns over time. This podcast delves into the surprising science of cellular memory, where biology, neuroscience, and philosophy intersect.
08:33
Ciliates can change their response to stimuli based on past experiences, demonstrating cellular learning.
11:11
Ciliates can change their response to stimuli based on prior experience, suggesting primitive decision-making.
16:42
Non-neural cells exhibit the spacing effect, a key feature of memory

Chapters

Could Life Remember Without a Brain?
00:00
Learning in the Simplest Creatures
05:46
How a Single Cell Makes Decisions
11:11
The Cellular Roots of the Spacing Effect
14:00
What Do We Really Mean by Memory?
19:14

Transcript

Samir Patel: The Infinite Monkey Cage returns imminently. I am Robert Ince and I'm sat next to Brian Cox, who has so much to tell you about what's on the new series. Primarily eels. And what else? It was fascinating, though, the eels. But we're not just do...