GROW's Best of 2020 (eBook for Desktop)

BEST OF 2020

t G R O W D I G I TA L | T H E L O N E L I E S T C R E AT U R E I N T H E W O R L D

in recent history is drawing to a close and we can barely conceal our relief. We spent 2020 — a year where work often felt somewhere between difficult and impossible — building up our digital platform and publishing our second print issue. In June, we launched growbyginkgo.com and have since been publishing long-form stories about biology and its muddy intersections with culture and politics.

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he s tr a nge s t y e a r

Our magazine has grown with every new story we’ve published.

For readers who recently joined us, and others who may have missed something, we have put together this e-book. It contains our five favorite digital stories of 2020.

Here they are, in no particular order. We hope that you like them as much as we do and that you will keep following our evolution in the new year.

As always, thanks for reading, the editors

Christina Agapakis, Grace Chuang, Leon Dische Becker, and Nadja Oertelt

contents

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34

The Loneliest Creature in the World br it t w r ay

24

14

Beyond Smart Rocks cl a i r e l . e va ns

Anatomy of an Underground Wildfire k a it l i n su l l i va n

The Food of Exiles su deep ag a rwa l a

49

Is DNA Hardware or Software? ch r ist i na ag a pa k is

futures

JUNE

23, 2020

The Loneliest Creature in the World Meet Greta, the first mammoth-elephant hybrid. by br it t w r ay i l l u s t r at i o n

by lian cho

g

r e ta i s photo gr a phe d

hundreds of times before she can

fully open her eyes. This fact eludes her, of course. All she can make out through the walls of her tank are the fluttering

white suits of her creators.

The room is bright and her bath is warm. A clamp

feels disoriented and confused. She is longing for

slides over her sides. She squeals as it hoists her

something, but she doesn’t know what.

up, her trunk and feet gliding along the plastic walls. The temperature drops as she is pulled

They finally walk her out of the lab, down a long

through a narrow rubbery slit. Adjusting well to

bright hall, but then she hears the echo of the

the cold air, she suddenly feels alien hands patting

crowd, the squeak of the microphone. She shuts

her down. A grinning being approaches her,

her eyes and curls into a ball. The cameras flash

white fluff all around its face. Is this her mother?

and snap at her. Greta tries to tear away, but realizes

Instinctively, she reaches out with her trunk,

that she is bound by invisible leashes. She trembles

but recoils upon feeling its starchy lab coat. Greta

fiercely and trumpets wildly, a temper tantrum

broadcast all over the planet. Where are her

is a comfortable temperature, and though she’s

parents? Who are these grinning beings all dressed

still confused and afraid, at least her brothers and

in white? What are they planning to do to her?

sisters feel the same. Unaware of the human hopes on their shoulders, they trample around all

Everything goes blurry. Weeks pass with every

day in the snow, looking for blades of grass to eat.

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slow blink. Her captors introduce her to other

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animals that look similar to her, albeit without

Does Greta have any idea who she is? Does she

all the fur. Unfortunately, her elephant cousins

feel any connection with her distant ancestors,

gather that there’s something strange about

the woolly mammoths, who roamed the same

Greta. They snort at her and keep their distance.

steppe more than 12,000 years ago?

Her first pleasant memory will be her little

Greta’s Parents

brother’s arrival in her pen. Bill (named after

The scientific project that may make our

another climate advocate) is hairy, too, misshapen

hypothetical friend Greta a reality is currently

in a different way. Soon, the two of them are

underway at Harvard University, supervised by

joined by more and more lost souls of their kind.

renowned inventor of genetic technologies George

A few months later, this listless gang, who the

Church. His team’s goal is not to bring woolly

white coats affectionately nickname their “climate

mammoths back to life, per se, but to engineer

marchers,” are moved to a big outdoor pasture

mammoth–elephant hybrids. To that end, they

in Siberia called Pleistocene Park. Here, anxious

have taken Asian elephant cells and edited woolly

Greta enjoys her first spell of relative stability. It

mammoth DNA sequences into them using the

gene-​editing tool known as CRISPR. These are

productivity of the woolly mammoth’s former

the first steps to making an elephant with thicker

ecosystem, they say, needs to be revived to stave

hair, fattier insulating skin, smaller ears that allow

off a climate catastrophe far worse than the one

less heat to escape, and the ability to bind and

we already face.

release oxygen in blood at freezing temperatures.

The woolly mammoth and Asian elephant are believed to have about 1.4 million specific genetic G R O W D I G I TA L | T H E L O N E L I E S T C R E AT U R E I N T H E W O R L D

differences between them. That might sound

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like a lot, but when the entire genome is made up of several billion bases, it’s mere pocket change.

Editing important differences away may yield a cold-​tolerant elephant, expanding the range of where today’s elephants can live. In this sense, it’s a high-tech approach to elephant conservation.

But why create a Greta when they could just do a better job at helping today’s elephants thrive in the wild? Greta, too, may wonder about the point of it all. Her creators say their dream is to resurrect, not a species, but an entire ecosystem. And the

The Lost World

Grasses dominated the land thanks to the animals’

Walking in the footsteps of her ancestors — ​whose

constant grazing, while most of the trees and

population crashed over 12,900 years ago, but who

shrubs were trampled under their hooves and feet.

continued to survive on certain islands until 3700

But as the climate changed and the number of

years ago — ​Greta’s trunk rifles through decompos-

human hunters increased, the megafauna started

ing plants, looking for a blade of grass to eat on

to disappear, as well as the productive ecosystem

a cold winter day. Her hairy foot punches through

they maintained.

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a crusty top layer of snow. Her hip bows out to

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the side with a forceful thrust, toppling over a tree

There are currently about 1500 billion tons of

stump. A mountain of shit rains down to the ground,

carbon trapped in permafrost in the mammoth

where grasses will soon grow. Whether she knows

steppe, which is twice as much as what is currently

it or not, Greta is a geo-​engineer with an urgent task.

in the atmosphere. The carbon from plants and animals that died thousands of years ago is not

The mammoth steppe ecosystem dominated the

dangerous in itself, but its decomposition would

Arctic in the late Pleistocene and spanned Europe,

be. When carbon-rich organics are exposed to

northern Asia, and northern North America. It’s

the elements, bacteria chew away at the stuff,

been estimated that there were once one mam-

producing either carbon dioxide or methane, two

moth, five bison, six horses, and ten reindeer for

greenhouse gases. Released into the atmosphere,

each square kilometer in some parts of the steppe,

they accelerate global warming, which is why

with an extra smattering of muskox, elk, woolly

thawing permafrost is increasingly talked about

rhinos, saiga antelope, snow sheep, and moose.

as a ticking time bomb.

That’s where Greta comes in. Russian scientist

into the ground. Woolly mammoths oversaw a

Sergey Zimov, who runs Pleistocene Park, believes

ventilation system, according to this theory.

that the best way to keep the carbon locked up

The air circulation they caused with their heavy

in the permafrost is to restore the ecosystem that

footsteps kept things cool; the stumps and

thrived there during the Pleistocene. At that time,

plants they’d destroy reduced the amount of

the area was covered with rich grasses, which

heat-​absorption from dark vegetation; and the

reflected light from the sun. As the large animals

lighter grasses they’d fertilize with their dung

grazed all day, they trampled other, darker

would reflect the sun’s rays.

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light-​absorbing plants and carved holes in the

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snow with the force of their feet.

That’s why George Church and his team at Harvard want to create a herd of 80,000 Gretas,

The three-foot layer of snow that lays on the

and send them to Siberia.

ground of the mammoth steppe today for much of the year might be seen as an insulation

The Trouble with Elephants

blanket. It keeps what’s beneath warmer than

Their work is well underway, but the outcome

what’s on top. If the outside temperature is -40

is still speculative. As Bobby Dhadwar, a former

degrees Celsius, then it might only be -5 or -10

post-doc in the Church Lab who did a lot of

Celsius under the snowy layer. But when millions

the initial gene-​editing work, says, “When people

of feet are punching holes in the snow, as they

hear about it, I think they get confused on the

once did during the Pleistocene, that insulating

timescale. It’s not like we are anywhere close to

blanket is perforated and cold air is pumped

giving birth to a woolly mammoth.”

One hurdle they must overcome is how they’re

With artificial insemination tools, researchers

going to source eggs from Asian elephants.

have been able to get sperm through that tiny

Female elephants ovulate every sixteen weeks,

opening, but to actually get an egg out, they must

although they can also skip years of ovulation

navigate an enormous depth on the other side

during pregnancy and lactation. In most animals,

until they locate the egg-​producing follicle — ​too

it is possible to use an ultrasound to locate the

deep for an ultrasound to visualize by itself.

follicle where the egg is developing, and harvest

Laparoscopic surgery, in which operations are

it from their ovaries.

performed through small keyhole incisions,

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can help when the follicle is so hard to reach.

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But that’s not so easy with elephants. Turns

The process typically requires that the animal’s

out, it’s notoriously hard to navigate an elephant’s

abdomen is inflated to allow for better visuali­

vaginal opening. Females have more than a

zation of the internal structures. But inflating

few feet of canal, called a vestibule, between

the abdomen of an elephant could kill it, since

their vulva, where any instrument would enter,

elephants lack a pleural cavity (the space between

and their hymen. Another problem is that the

the squishy membranes that surround the lungs

elephant hymen remains intact even after it has

and line the inner chest), which makes inflation

intercourse. Though it ruptures when a female

harmless in other animals. The elephants’ chest

gives birth, it grows back after each pregnancy.

cavity could easily become overcompressed. As a

Sperm can reach the egg only by passing through

result, researchers are hoping for a breakthrough

a tiny aperture in the membrane.

in embryogenesis — ​the creation of embryos — ​to make this work.

The technical complexity doesn’t stop there. If

develop. Elephants are having a hard enough

they one day manage to insert all of the desired

time reproducing in the wild as it is, so Church’s

mammoth DNA into a fertilized elephant egg

team has tentatively rejected the idea of using

cell, they will then have to put it somewhere it can

real elephants as surrogates.

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But this isn’t really about her, anyway.

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Instead, they are working towards using artificial wombs. Ectogenesis, a term coined by British biologist J.B.S. Haldane in 1924, refers to the growth of an organism in some sort of vessel outside of the body. In the 1990s, Japanese researchers came up with a technique called extrauterine fetal incubation. They connected catheters to large blood vessels in goat umbilical cords, and fed oxygenated blood to the fetuses as they grew in tanks of amniotic fluid, which were heated to a goat mother’s normal body temperature. Getting all the technical components of mammoth de-​extinction right will take years, if not decades.

Growing Up in a Vacuum

have a social species living all by itself, which

Let’s say they eventually succeed in putting an

makes for a really sad existence. Some zoos are

edited elephant embryo into a surrogate Asian

no longer keeping elephants at all, particularly

elephant mother or artificial womb. If all goes

solitary ones or those in small groups, because

well, it will develop and be delivered into

of the psychological stress it causes them. If

this world, just like Greta, as a healthy elephant

we do succeed in creating a Greta, she may be

calf with woolly mammoth traits. How is that

a very anxious woolly elephant. But this isn’t

creature going to learn to act like a mammoth,

really about her, anyway.

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when there are no mammoths left to learn from?

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The names given to blockbuster lab-​animals It’s possible that at first scientists might create

reveal something about the scientists who make

something that doesn’t look much like either a

them. Dolly the sheep, for instance, got her

mammoth or an elephant, but something in-​

name because the nucleus used to clone her came

between. Will a surrogate Asian elephant mother

from a yew’s udder. The scientists who cloned

accept a pseudo-​mammoth calf with an odd-​

her thought it was funny that udders are kind of

looking haircut into its herd? Proboscideans, the

like breasts, so they named her after Dolly Parton.

order to which mammoths and elephants belong,

Greta’s creators — ​we can only hope — ​won’t be so

have complex social structures, with matriarchal

boyishly immature.

societies. Knowledge about how to survive in the wild is passed from mothers and aunts to babies.

This leads inevitably to a photo op: elephant-​

If the pseudo-​mammoth is rejected, then you

mammoth Greta, the unwitting bio-​engineer,

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peering into the eyes of her namesake, the wise,

around the world. And still, it is cool to see

elderly climate activist. An awkward moment

what weird tricks we can perform when we put

for both of them, at first: Greta, the mammoth,

our mind to it. And for a moment, at least in

doesn’t care about names, and wonders who this

the picture that goes around the world, the two

new person is. Greta, the person, has her doubts

of them do seem to have a connection of some

whether bringing back the woolly mammoth

kind. Hope is a long-shot investment that doesn’t

is a wise investment given all the suffering

always pay off as intended.

author

i l lu s t r at o r

Britt Wray is a broadcaster, storyteller, and

Lian Cho is a children’s book illustrator based

author of Rise of the Necrofauna: The Science,

out of Brooklyn. Her work features a mix

Ethics and Risks of De-​Extinction.

of various mediums and she enjoys creating charismatic characters in colorful compositions.

futures

J U LY

15, 2020

Beyond Smart Rocks It’s time to reimagine what a computer could be. by cl a i r e l . e va ns i l l u s t r at i o n

by k aren in g r am

i

n mom e n t s of

technological frustration, it helps to remember that a

computer is basically a rock. That is its fundamental witchcraft, or ours: for all its processing power, the device that runs your life is just

a complex arrangement of minerals animated by electricity and language.

Smart rocks. The components are mined from the Earth at great cost, and they eventually return to the Earth, however poisoned. This rock-

G R O W D I G I TA L | B E YO N D S M A R T R O C K S

and-​metal paradigm has mostly served us well. The miniaturization of

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metallic components onto wafers of silicon — ​an empirical trend we call Moore’s Law — ​has defined the last half-​century of life on Earth, giving us wristwatch computers, pocket-sized satellites and enough raw computational power to model the climate, discover unknown molecules, and emulate human learning.

G R O W D I G I TA L | B E YO N D S M A R T R O C K S 16

But there are limits to what a rock can do.

Starting from Slime

Computer scientists have been predicting the

It’s tempting to believe that computing paradigms

end of Moore’s Law for decades. The cost of

are set in stone, so to speak. But there are

fabricating next-​generation chips is growing more

already alternatives on the horizon. Quantum

prohibitive the closer we draw to the physical

computing, for one, would shift us from a

limits of miniaturization. And there are only so

realm of binary ones and zeroes to one of qubits,

many rocks left. Demand for the high-​purity

making computers drastically faster than we

silica sand used to manufacture silicon chips is

can currently imagine, and the impossible — ​like

so high that we’re facing a global, and irreversible,

unbreakable cryptography — ​newly possible.

sand shortage; and the supply chain for

Still further off are computer architectures rebuilt

commonly-used minerals, like tin, tungsten,

around a novel electronic component called a

tantalum, and gold, fuels bloody conflicts all over

memristor. Speculatively proposed by the physicist

the world. If we expect 21st century computers

Leon Chua in 1971, first proven to exist in 2008,

to process the ever-​growing amounts of data our

a memristor is a resistor with memory, which

culture produces — ​and we expect them to do

makes it capable of retaining data without power.

so sustainably — ​we will need to reimagine how

A computer built around memristors could

computers are built. We may even need to

turn off and on like a light switch. It wouldn’t

reimagine what a computer is to begin with.

require the conductive layer of silicon necessary for traditional resistors. This would open computing to new substrates — ​the possibility, even, of integrating computers into atomically

thin nano-​materials. But these are architectural

fungal animal. That a slime mold could act as

changes, not material ones.

a living memristor — ​regulating the flow of electricity through a circuit and “remembering”

For material changes, we must look farther afield,

electrical charges — ​is remarkable, but it’s not

to an organism that occurs naturally only in the

unique in the natural kingdom. Scientists have

most fleeting of places. We need to glimpse into

observed these behaviors in the sweat ducts of

the loamy rot of a felled tree in the woods of the

human skin, in flowing blood, and in leaves. A

Pacific Northwest, or examine the glistening

2017 study concluded that, most likely, “all living

walls of a damp cave. That’s where we may just

and unmodified plants are ‘memristors,’” proof

find the answer to computing’s intractable rock

that Mother Nature anticipates even our cleverest

problem: down there, among the slime molds.

speculations. She may even dictate our the

G R O W D I G I TA L | B E YO N D S M A R T R O C K S

next computational frontier, after quantum and

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Slime molds are way ahead of our computational

memristive computers have arrived and gone.

speculations. Take memristors: in 2014, a group of researchers at the University of West England

Biological systems not only anticipate, but excel

discovered memristive behaviors in the many-

at certain thorny computational tasks. In

headed Physarum polycephalum, a primitive but

one experiment, researchers released a Physarum

compellingly intelligent slime mold. Slime molds

polycephalum slime mold on a topographical

aren’t fungi, nor are they animals; at different

relief map of the United States. They placed it on

points in history, they’ve been classified both

the West Coast, on the Oregon coastal town

ways, earning them the latin name Mycetozoa, or

of Newport, and placed a pile of oat flakes — ​the

slime mold’s favorite food — ​at the other end of

of limited learning, making it a leading candidate

the country, in Boston, Massachusetts. The mold

for a new kind of biological computer system — ​

shot out protoplasmic tubes, searching for an

one that isn’t mined, but grown. This proposition

efficient path towards the oat flakes it sensed via

has entranced researchers worldwide and

airborne chemicals. After five days, the mold

attracted invest­ment at the government level. An

reached Boston, cutting across the country while

EU-funded research group, PhyChip, hopes to

avoiding mountainous terrain. You may recognize

build a hybrid computer chip from Physarum, by

its path if you’ve ever road-tripped from

shellacking its protoplasmic tubes in conductive

Oregon to New England: the slime mold charted

particles. Such a “functional biomorphic com-

Route 20, the longest road in the US.

puting device” would be sustainable, self-​healing and self-​correcting. It would also be, by some

G R O W D I G I TA L | B E YO N D S M A R T R O C K S

Physarum polycephalum is an expert at such tasks.

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definition, alive.

Its sensing, searching protoplasmic tubes can solve mazes, design efficient networks, and easily

This unorthodox hybrid of computer science,

find the shortest path between points on a map.

physics, mathematics, chemistry, electronic

In a range of experiments, it has modeled the

engineering, biology, material science and nano-

roadways of ancient Rome, traced a perfect copy

technology is called Uncon­ventional Computing.

of Japan’s interconnected rail networks, and

Professor Andrew Adamatzky, the founder of

smashed the Traveling Salesman Problem, an

the Unconventional Computing Laboratory at

exponentially complex math problem. It has no

the University of the West of England, explains

central nervous system, but Physarum is capable

its ethos: “to uncover and exploit principles and

mechanisms of information processing in…

Professor Adamatzky proposes that we will

physical, chemical and living systems” in order to

someday be “close partners” with slime mold,

“develop efficient algorithms, design optimal

harnessing its behavior to grow electronic circuits,

architectures and manufacture working proto-

solve complex problems, and better understand

types of future and emergent computing devices.”

mechanics of natural information processing.

In short, Unconventional Computer scientists

Over the last decade, his lab has produced nearly

build computers not from rocks and sand but

40 prototypes of sensing and computing devices

from the nutrient-​seeking protoplasma of slime

using Physarum polycephalum. He has recently

molds, among other natural materials.

shifted his interests to more widely available fungus, finding that fungal mycelium — ​the

G R O W D I G I TA L | B E YO N D S M A R T R O C K S

complex, branching filaments that spread below

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If you’re looking for a computer — ​even if you’re looking under a rock — ​a computer is what you’ll find.

ground before sprouting up the fruiting bodies we know as mushrooms — ​can solve the same kinds of computational geometry problems as slime mold.

The Unconventional Computing Lab recently received funding to develop “computing houses” out of mycelium, “functionalizing” the fungal matter to react to changes in light, temperature and pollution. Adamatzky’s view is expansive.

“Everything around us will be a computer and interface results of the computation to us.”

We are left to imagine computer chips bristling

A Very Different Kind of UX

with energy and life, laced with the unusual

Switching from silicon to slime is a transformative

branching filaments of protoplasmic tubes,

idea. For me, the very question feels radically

and monolithic buildings, grown in-situ

hopeful: might building computers from slime

by computationally-​active mycelial networks,

molds and mushrooms transform computing

adapting, searching, self-​repairing, sensing

from a sophisticated solipsism into a far more

G R O W D I G I TA L | B E YO N D S M A R T R O C K S

“all what human can sense.” One science fiction

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sophisticated expression of our awe-​inspiringly

story published in this magazine gives us a

complex, interconnected world? Certainly it

utopian (and later a dystopian) vision of such

would change our whole relational experience of

a future: “Everything we touched was alive.

computing. It might also be more sustainable,

Each morning I woke up in a bed made of

as biological computer systems would consume

mushroom, covered in sheets of fresh spider silk.

far less energy than traditional hardware and,

The limbs of our home opened with sunrise….

at the end of life, be completely biodegradable.

Instead of a cell phone, I gazed at a beautiful

“We can shut down our PC completely,” Adamatzky

organic ecosystem with fluorescent proteins

explains, “but we will never shut down a living

arranged to display the news. My teeth stayed

fungi or a slime mould without killing it.” Forget

clean naturally, a self-​balancing ecosystem

planned obsolescence.

consuming the excess sugar from my diet.

Everything, absolutely everything, was alive.”

The research folders on my very rock-based computer are crammed with papers on plant leaf computing; computing driven by the billiard

ball-like collisions of droplets and marbles; the

so reality itself takes on the appearance of a

problem-​solving algorithms of lettuce seedlings;

computer; and our modes of thought follow suit.”

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computing systems built around the behavior

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of blue soldier crabs, rushing between shade and

Training Artificial Intelligence models on large

sunshine on a beach. The sheer multiplicity

datasets, for example, we often make the erro­

of approaches is enough to make you think that

neous assumption that our future progresses

computing is not so much an industry as a way

as some predictable extrapolation of our past,

of seeing — ​an interpretation of the world. “If we

without taking into account the many external

are inventive enough, we can interpret any process

factors that determine how humans behave,

as a computation,” Adamatzky says. If you’re

react, and make choices. In the process, we

looking for a computer — ​even if you’re looking

reproduce and codify historical biases, obliter­

under a rock — ​a computer is what you’ll find.

ating any chance we might have of learning from our mistakes. These kinds of errors, Bridle

The artist and critic James Bridle, in his book

argues, are a consequence of trying to smooth

New Dark Age, describes “computational thinking”

reality’s edges to fit into the inflexible world-

as the unique mental disease of the twentieth

model of the computer, reducing all our nuances

century, arguing that massively powerful, seduc-

and contradictions to mere data. Perhaps if

tive calculators reformed our world in their

our computational systems were built from the

image. In making data-​processing machines, we

Earth up to model the ways nature processes

turned our world into data, and “as computation

infor­mation, we wouldn’t need to jam a square

and its products increasingly surround us…

peg into a round hole.

It’s radical, but not impossible. Computing para-

to an unimaginable multitude of other behaviors

digms are hardly set in stone. In the 1950s, electri-

and processes, the whole system regenerative,

cal analog computing was standard, and today

seamless, self-​correcting, magnificent.

we live in a digital world. Only twenty years ago, quantum computing was science fiction, and

It’s hard to imagine that we will ever succeed

today it’s being actively developed by Intel, IBM,

in building a computer system as brilliantly

Microsoft, and Google, among tech titans world-

complex as the interrelation of fungal mycelium,

wide. A similar process might well unfold with

far-​reaching tree roots, and soil micro­organisms

biological systems. “Unconventional computing is

in your average healthy forest, what scientists

a science in flux,” Adamatzky says. “What is uncon-

call the “wood wide web.” Smart devices,

ventional today will be conventional tomorrow.”

connected to one another through cloud-based

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servers vulnerable to cyberattack and plain old

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Of course, the natural world is more complex

entropy, could never do this. And perhaps this

than slime molds and lettuce seedlings. These are

is the real reason fully biological computers may

only the simplest systems that can be studied and

remain always beyond our grasp. Even now, as

manipulated in a laboratory environment. The

we dream of embedding artificial intelligence

real world — ​the living world — ​is unpredictable,

into every mate­rial surface of our lives, we are at

tenacious, and soulful, a humbling entangle­ment

best poorly emulating processes already at play

of mutual need. What we call “nature” is a concert

beneath our feet and in our gardens. We’re making

of behaviors and processes entirely coeval with the

a bad copy of the Earth — ​and, in mining the

organisms running them, each connected further

Earth to create it, we are destroying the original.

G R O W D I G I TA L | B E YO N D S M A R T R O C K S 23

author

i l lu s t r at o r

Claire L. Evans is a writer and musician. She

Karen Ingram is an indie Creative Director

is the singer and coauthor of the Grammy-​

who focuses on science communications.

nominated pop group YACHT, the founding

She is a co-author of “BioBuilder: Synthetic

editor of Terraform, VICE’s science-​fiction

Biology in the Lab (O’reilly, 2015),” which

vertical, and author of Broad Band: The Untold

has recently been released in Japanese (2018)

Story of the Women Who Made the Internet.

and Russian (2019).

“Wildfire” by NPS Climate Change Response (marked with CC PDM 1.0)

r e p o r tag e

AUGUST

1 7, 2 0 2 0

Anatomy of an Underground Wildfire Can we help scorched soil heal itself in the wake of supersized wildfires? by k a it l i n su l l i va n i l l u s t r at i o n

b y s o p h i e s ta n d i n g

Bruthen is nestled along Australia’s Great Alpine Road, but in the small flat town you are likely to forget the nearby Victorian Alps. Bruthen is surrounded by rarer, more impressive towers. Eucalyptus regnans, plainly known as the Mountain ash, stretch 33 storeys into the sky and erupt with white spindly flowers, their petals

G R O W D I G I TA L | A N AT O M Y O F A N U N D E R G R O U N D W I L D F I R E

tipped with ivory bulbs. Bruthen is surrounded by the tallest flowering plants in the world.

25

t

he w ildfir e th at

tore through the landscape surrounding

Australia’s Great Alpine Road late last year wasn’t sentimental: it took everything. A few days after Christmas Day, Bruthen’s

residents grabbed what they could and fled, leaving two-story homes and full-size mattresses to burn. By then, the mountain ash around their town resembled huge candles. The nearby wine country was a cloud

of smoke. Their scenic highway was framed by inferno. The natural world they inhabited was being obliterated in front of their eyes; and, where they couldn’t see it, underground.

The East Gippsland bushfire burned for three

surface is also achieving novel extents. Desertifi­

months, one of several blazes that amounted

cation threatens: rich soil turned to dirt, luscious

in sum to the most destructive fire season

landscapes left barren. This unique threat pres-

in Australia’s history. As a final trick, the fire

ents questions both scientific and ethical. What

created its own weather systems. When the

could we — ​and what should we — ​be doing to

smoke cleared, the damage was tallied: more

help our glorious underground interwebs heal?

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than 46 million acres destroyed, roughly the size

26

of Pennsylvania, 1.25 billion wild animals killed,

The Damage Below

2,680 homes lost, and at least 33 human lives.

To appreciate what’s at stake here, we must first

Understandably, given the human interest in

delve underground. We don’t have to dig very deep.

visible things, almost no one was talking about

Most microscopic life can be found in the top 15

the loss of life in the soil. But this microscopic

centimeters of soil, meaning we have to travel only

community is no minor matter: its healing will

the length of an iPhone 11 to witness some of the

provide the foundation for the area’s recovery.

most complex living systems on earth.

This is the purview of a few concerned biologists,

We are now steeped in the rhizosphere below

who study the damage wildfires do underground:

a North American pine forest. The roots of

the heat sinking into the earth, shriveling and

these towering trees are host to a glorious society,

popping its microscopic residents. As the fires

abuzz with mutually beneficial and parasitic

around the world burn hotter, longer, and more

partnerships. Spindly mycorrhizal fungi cling to

frequently, the damage occurring below the

the roots searching for nitrogen in the soil, which

they trade with the tree in return for carbon. The

We see the system hard at work when it’s

survival of both depends on the success of this

moist. Fungi and bacteria dwell in spongy moss

chemical bartering system. To hold up its end of

and lichen, the system’s water-​keepers. And

the bargain, the fungi are constantly on the

then the whole thing dries up. Rain has been

lookout for nitrogen-rich nematodes. The fungus

scarce. Parched air sucks moisture from

ensnares these slender worms like a python,

soil ecosystems, turning the moss and lichen

exuding enzymes to liquidate its prey, and then

into uninhabitable tinder. Water-​dependent

shares the spoils with its pine overlord.

nematodes dry up and begin to hibernate. In

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the absence of rain, sections of the balanced

27

Further below, a six-​legged springtail feasts

ecosystem disappear. Others become fuel for

on the fungi, and then suddenly takes off. These

the approaching wildfires.

insect ancestors have a cool trick when they’re facing hostile mites and arthropods, using their

The stagnant blazes change the porosity of

detachable appendage as a spring, propelling

soil, opening wide gaps, sealing portals, changing

them to safety. The fungi spreads with them,

how water moves through it. The chemical

expanding its scope of influence. Fungi that are

composition and acidity of the dirt changes

unappetizing to springtails tend to die off.

immediately. The inferno lingers, dining on

Back above ground, decomposer saprotrophic

underbrush, saplings, and hefty trunks. The

fungi break down leaf litter on the forest floor,

heat incinerates the leaves, pine needles and

converting it to usable carbon and nitrogen, and

dehydrated moss that covers the forest floor,

remitting it to its allies underground.

halting the transfer of carbon and nitrogen. It

burrows into the soil where it consumes entire

the soil is drastically thinned. The survivors

root systems, setting off a domino effect in the

are left with a habitat that is fundamentally

microscopic food chain.

different. These conditions pack a one-two

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punch for soil health: first the fires eliminate

28

This sterilizes those precious top 15 centimeters

soil diversity, then drought conditions make

of soil. Even if some inhabitants survive the

it difficult for new microbes to repopulate

heat, the diversity of microbes moving through

the area.

The massive trees and tall grasses, which house

Given time, most burned soil ecosystems heal

dung beetles and apex predators and everything

themselves. Indeed, they can gain strength from

in between, have a difficult time taking root in

the fires, kicking the microscopic soil builders

sterilized soil. If plants cannot quickly reestablish,

into overdrive. Unfortunately, the coming decades

the fauna-less earth turns to desert. Dead

are expected to bring unprecedented spans of

soil erodes and blows away and can no longer

drought. This will fuel wildfires that rage with an

capture and store water, the basis of all life. The

intensity that today’s microbial communities

ecosystem it once supported disappears, and

haven’t evolved to endure.

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with it, the few bacteria and fungi the soil needs

29

to flourish. Soil becomes its lifeless cousin, dirt.

New threats like this, paired with the possibility of new biotechnology, invite the specter of

Beyond Recovery?

human intervention, even though the science

Soil inhabitants are naturally good at recovering

of altering the soil microbiome is still in its

from occasional wildfires, which have been

infancy. For nearly half a century, biologists have

a part of their life cycle for eons. “The organisms

attempted to inoculate Earth’s surface with

necessary for a healthy soil ecosystem are falling

designer microbes that feast on pollution. More

out of the sky constantly and they will recolonize

recently, the notion of terraforming Mars — ​

the soil environment quickly, as long as the

converting the planet’s lifeless red canyons into

conditions are right,” says William Mohn, a

oxygen-​pumping swaths of greenery — ​has

professor in the Department of Microbiology &

outgrown the realm of science fiction to become

Immunology at the University of British Columbia.

a NASA-​funded research topic. Meanwhile, on

planet earth synthetic biologists are working

these unburned islands could function as soil

on new ways to speed up the healing of scorched

microbe banks. Chunks of soil, full of carbon

land and the restoration of plant life.

sources (mostly plants), could be used to inoculate the disturbed area with a microbial community

Matthew Bowker, a dryland ecologist at Northern

that likely looks a lot like the previous one.

Arizona University, thinks that jumpstarting

Providing an easily-​inhabitable habitat will ensure

recovery with beneficial plants, and thus creating

that new microbes have the best shot at survival.

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a habitat for a diverse microbial community,

30

is the best launch point when exploring new

Lab-​incubated soil cultures have also been

ways to speed up soil-​healing in the future. His

part of the discussion, even though, based on

team has successfully transplanted biocrust

the current technology and research, such an

in contaminated areas, such as military sites.

approach is sure to fail. Ninety-nine percent of known microbes are unculturable. Previous

“I’m interested in the benefits of sourcing soil organisms and plant materials from the same

trials have shown that the few that can be lab-grown almost never survive in the wild.

location as the fire, versus just letting the plants deal with whatever soil organisms are

However, professor William Mohn says that

present in the area to be restored,” Bowker says.

this very issue — ​a lack of microbial diversity in burned soil — ​could be the factor that allows

When a fire tears through a forest, it leaves

laboratory colonies to colonize a real ecosystem.

pockets of intact ecosystems. Bowker believes

“As a microbial ecologist I’m skeptical, but I

wouldn’t condemn the idea until somebody tries

With the current body of research, he says,

it,” he says.

we can’t.

Soil becomes its lifeless cousin, dirt.

Most research surrounding modified or human-​ arranged soil microbiomes has never evolved beyond theoretical models. Solé is among a small number of researchers who want to develop real microbial communities on a small scale to see if

G R O W D I G I TA L | A N AT O M Y O F A N U N D E R G R O U N D W I L D F I R E

they can reproduce what the models predict.

31

Risky Business

Victor de Lorenzo, a synthetic biologist with

Ricard Solé, a research professor at the Universitat

the Centro Nacional de Biotecnologia in Madrid,

Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, wants to genetically

says he has about 10 types of life in mind that

engineer microscopic soil life, entrusting

could thrive in burned soil, because they sequester

restoration efforts to organisms that are altered

nitrogen and carbon very well — ​a huge part

to have specific traits that soil ecosystems

of a healthy soil ecosystem. His lab specializes

need to thrive. But the research is controversial.

in extremophiles, organisms that thrive in Earth’s

When his team applies for funding, Solé says

most hostile environments. Nevertheless, he

there is always someone who asks: “How do we

expects that transporting these communities

know that this isn’t going to create something

from the laboratory to real ecosystems would

that we don’t want?”

be difficult.

“In my opinion, the ultimate mechanism for

Australian thorny devil, have evolved to siphon

propagating traits is through horizontal transfer,”

small amounts of water through capillaries — ​

he says. “Bacteria have very good natural channels

straw-like tubes roughly the same thickness as

for propagating their own DNA. You don’t need

a strand of human hair — ​in their skin. Other

to propagate the entire bacteria, just the DNA.”

organisms could be modified to take on this

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trait, and capture and hold water in a landscape

32

Such modified DNA could be added to the

of dry or burned soil. Moisture creates a niche

cluster of genetic matter of existing, thriving

for bacteria, which sets off a domino effect that

soil bacteria. This marriage could bypass

could quickly restore soil life.

the challenge of getting laboratory organisms to survive in competitive ecosystems. It’s also

“Although there will likely be some bacteria that

possible that this modified DNA could harness

are still present, with the vegetation gone, these

attributes from other biological systems, such

life forms are very limited,” says de Lorenzo.

as plants or animals that are uniquely suited to

“We have an opportunity to bring in some of

thrive in harsh conditions, which would make

the concepts that were considered earlier for the

the microbiome more resistant to new challenges

colonization of Mars, and discuss using them

including extreme drought.

here on Earth.”

Three species of desert-​dwelling lizards, for

De Lorenzo recognizes the legitimate safety

example, never drink water. Instead, the

concerns that are part of the modified organism

reptiles, including the spikey, terracotta-​colored

discussion, but he believes that researchers

must begin to run trial scenarios that will help

author

determine the potential consequences of synthetic ecology. He wants to move research forward,

Kaitlin Sullivan is a health, science and

from theoretical models to tangible replicas.

investigative reporter based in the Midwest.

“My concern is that we don’t have an unlimited

i l lu s t r at o r

G R O W D I G I TA L | A N AT O M Y O F A N U N D E R G R O U N D W I L D F I R E

time to deal with environmental problems.

33

We cannot keep discussing whether or not it’s

Sophie Standing is an illustrator specializing in

right to use synthetic biology,” says de Lorenzo.

human sciences, with a passion to improve

“Society will have to decide whether or not we should intervene.”

communication and understanding of health and wellbeing through illustration.

p e r s o n a l e s s ay

SEPTEMBER

24, 2020

The Food of Exiles Technologies of memory and loss in a displaced world. by su deep ag a rwa l a i l l u s t r at i o n

by tom ek ah g eorg e

Omnes Generationes

brother-in-law’s two-​hundred-​person wedding, sanctifying the meal for every distant relative

Where does food come from?

and friend that I, by virtue of living on a different continent, haven’t met before and may never have

It is March, 2016. I’m at Logan Airport and

the opportunity to meet again.

should soon be en route to London, if only I can make it through this TSA checkpoint

This story does not seem to move the agent who

with a five-pound bag of flour in my backpack.

eyes the large bag of white powder emerging

G R O W D I G I TA L | T H E F O O D O F E X I L E S

from the scanner. All I can do is smile and try

35

I’m not doing this for the thrill of smuggling or

to charm my way out of purgatory. In the end,

because I desire to be interrogated. No: I have

I walk away with a salvaged package of King

just found out the hard way that American flour

Arthur bread flour thoroughly wrapped in TSA

is different from British flour, culminating in

tape. A minor miracle.

The Great Croquembouche Catastrophe of 2015.

And failure, this time around, simply isn’t an

My in-laws receive the story with sharp humor,

option. I am meant to bake the challah for my

ribbing me lovingly for being so particular about

flour, but I don’t have time to explain. There’s

my husband and his older brother break into fits

work to be done. A large pile of precious white

of giggles reciting the grace after meals.

dust has made it from my luggage onto the counter. I massage eggs, honey, olive oil (the best

In my life with my husband, Paul, challah is

I could buy while still making rent), salt, water,

much more than bread: baking it punctuates my

and my special yeast into the growing loaf. Then

memories of our time together.

G R O W D I G I TA L | T H E F O O D O F E X I L E S

there’s the matter of architecture: I’ve practiced

36

the braids at length, but it’s clear that what I

Near the very beginning, I am twenty-eight and

had in mind won’t fit this London oven. A quick

have just burned myself pulling loaves out of the

re-work averts disaster, and I sit cross-​legged

oven one crisp spring Friday morning. I am dis-

anxiously peering into the chamber where the

tracted because our relationship seems doomed. I

plaited dough springs to life and transforms into

have been seeing Paul for four months and he has

bread. When it comes out, it cools, is carefully

just accepted a job here in Cambridge, while I have

wrapped, and is gingerly transported to the art

been contemplating post-docs on the West Coast.

deco miracle that is the Royal Institute of British

I have lost an entire night’s sleep to the worries.

Architects. That night, my father-in-law tells of my misadventures at Logan Airport to a crowded

Next: I am standing in my kitchen trying to

room of wedding guests; he sings the hamotzi

remember how to braid a six-strand loaf under

while ceremoniously drawing a knife over the

the watchful gaze of my husband’s advisor who

auburn crust; I dance the horah faster than

is staying with us for the night. He is kind and

I ever have before and sweat through my suit;

patient, but I am nervous and keep wrecking the

strands. Or here, I am laughing with my mother-

Book of Numbers of the Hebrew Bible. Moses

in-law, Ruth, at the counter as tiny rivulets of

has just finished his intercession on behalf of his

egg and water break through the dam of flour;

people. For decades, almost a generation, they

these loaves will be the first she’s ever made.

have subsisted on crystalline manna the size of coriander seeds, which collects like dew over-

And then, I am soaking precious spices for the

night. It is ground and cooked into pats that taste

bread celebrating an as-yet-​unborn baby who will

like oil cakes; there’s a double portion on Friday

never enter our house (a misunderstood gesture,

mornings to tie them over the Sabbath. They

an unread text); the adoption fails and the loaves

are sick of this food: “We remember the fish that

are thrown away, untouched, as we prepare for

we ate in Egypt free of charge, the cucumbers,

an especially long journey home.

the watermelons, the leeks, the onions, and

G R O W D I G I TA L | T H E F O O D O F E X I L E S

the garlic. But now, our bodies are dried out, for

37

Finally, my friend Milan drops off a prototype of

there is nothing at all; we have nothing but

challah he has designed for my wedding, only

manna to look at.” In the Judaism that Paul has

two weeks away: it is as delicious as it is beautiful;

brought into my life, food has always been a

I can never recreate it. I’d burn with jealousy if

symbol of perseverance in exile.

my mouth weren’t so full.

I suppose it’s conceivable that these cakes from This swirl of time has one last stop, further back

ground manna three thousand years ago are

than I had bargained: we are standing at Tab’erah

the same thing as the pillowy Viennoiserie I bake

on the Sinai Peninsula, in a scene narrated in the

on Thursday evenings in preparation for next

day’s sabbath. But the dish has evolved profoundly

Every Friday evening is a reminder that each

over time. In my mind’s eye, I see coarsely

challah is as significant as its predecessors, and

ground wheat puffed into orbs; aged sourdough

even the moment that originated this tradition;

gently shaped into voluptuous boules. In

the Torah is not in Heaven, after all. All previous

Northern Europe, eggs are introduced; fragrant

challoth, even the ones to come, are convened

honey is easier to come by here than sugar;

at this one point, this one Shabbat we are now

oil, instead of butter, will make sure that the bread

celebrating: no matter which hands have

remains pareve for Shabbat. From there, I see

shaped it or how it is made, the plaited bread

the refinement of the flour, the labyrinthine

on the board is the same loaf that was eaten

plaiting. I see the different vogues of shaping and

by the generations of our family that preceded:

forming the loaves, the different seasonings

by Moses’ plaintive followers at Tab’erah, the

that adorn the bread.

Varsani in Spain, the Confini in Bulgaria, the

G R O W D I G I TA L | T H E F O O D O F E X I L E S

Jacobi in Germany, the Kosminski in Poland, and

38

by our children, should they come, in America.

Perhaps it’s all nostalgia.

Legend has it that in 1658, when Job Charnock of the British East India Company arrived at

G R O W D I G I TA L | T H E F O O D O F E X I L E S 39

Sutanuti in Bengal, he was greeted with the tradi-

simmered with bay leaf, served with rice, peas, and

tional dish of cooked pulses and rice, khichuri.

curry powder. Heavy cream and sultanas finish

In Bengal, this dish is still a staple of cloudy Spring

off the dish, with a dribble of lemon. This meal is

days, when its bright yellows and reds flatter the

something to wake up to, with milky tea, buttered

grey skies and sheet rain. Onions, cumin, turmeric,

toast and jam on the side. This is only one of the

and tomatoes fried in mustard oil form the base

dishes that has marked Britain throughout its

for cooked vegetables — ​in my recipe, potatoes,

colonial expansion. Tea, imported from across the

cauliflower, peas and beans — ​that are simmered

globe, is a cornerstone that dictates the rhythms

with dal and parboiled rice, topped with ghee,

of life, served at practically every gathering. Doner

garam masala, and green chili peppers. During the

kebabs, peri peri chicken, curries — ​not to mention

monsoon, it’s served in the afternoons with ilish

the ultimate cross-​cultural contrivance, chicken

fish taken from the Ganges, dusted with a coating

tikka masala — ​all abound as cultural staples.

of turmeric and salt, and lightly fried. Onion

Their imprint on British life bubbles up after

fritters sit on the side of the plate with a teaspoon

late nights of drinking as sloppy piles of cash are

of achar; peels of raw onion, and raw green chilis

traded for precious packets of food in folded

are tacked onto the plate as an afterthought; green

newspaper or styrofoam containers.

mango chutney to finish.

Our wobbly-​legged bureaucrat on the shores of This food didn’t stay in India, of course. Khichuri

swampy Bengal may be seen as an early omen

would be anglicized as kedgeree and served for

of this exchange. Was there disgust or curiosity

breakfast all over the Empire: smoked haddock,

that possessed the East India officer when the

clumpy dish of rice and lentils greeted him fresh

That swamp village will continue to grow and be

off the boat? What was it like for the life-long

subsumed into the larger city of Calcutta, soon

Londoner, raised on mutton and beef, to live on

to become the seat of the British Raj, overseeing

foreign grains and vegetables never seen by the

all of India. Today, a few blocks away from the

nation whose interest he represented and under

Victoria Memorial, in the graveyard of St. John’s

which this foreign land will come to be ruled?

Church on the banks of the Hooghly River, there

To step off and taste is to become part of the

is a diminutive Indo-​Islamic monument carved

country that will determine his future. There are

from Charnockite. It shelters a patch of land that

decisions to be made; we have lived and died,

never quite managed to remain for ever England.

and still live, in their wake.

G R O W D I G I TA L | T H E F O O D O F E X I L E S

We are told that a Rajput Princess is prevented

40

from performing sati (self-​immolation) at her

A moment’s pity for the petty bourgeois admin­

husband’s funeral pyre; she changes her name to

istrators that plotted the takeover of the known

Maria and marries this man from London. Later,

world. EM Forster captured their longing for

there are rumors among his Puritan colleagues

home in A Passage to India. During tea, they fret

that he has converted to Hinduism. Sutanuti,

over the inadequacies of the imported dishes.

where Charnock landed, ate khichuri, married, and buried his wife twenty-five years later is

[…A]nd the menu was: julienne soup full of

where he will go on to establish the administra-

bullety bottled peas, pseudo-​cottage bread, fish

tive center of the British East India Company.

full of branching bones, pretending to be plaice,

more bottled peas with the cutlets, trifle,

air. It wasn’t even that she was on the verge of

sardines on toast: the menu of Anglo-​India.

having her Anglo-​Indian education tested in

A dish might be added or subtracted as one

America, her practice of medicine scrutinized

rose or fell in the official scale, the peas might

along with her understanding of culture,

rattle less or more, the sardines and the

of language, of clothing. No: it was the food.

vermouth be imported by a different firm, but the tradition remained; the food of exiles,

Raised to become a doctor, Rita Agarwala had

cooked by servants who did not understand it.

spent her days in India poring over textbooks and experiments in the lab, rather than sitting

Nostalgia touches the seventeenth-​century

beside my grandmother in the kitchen absorbing

explorer just as it did my parents, half a world

the arcane techniques required to feed a family.

away from the land where they were raised.

Now, a world away — ​on her journey from

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Kharagpur to Kolkata, to Dhaka, Paris, New York,

41

then Chicago — ​the sole thread that connected her home was a slender collection of hand-​written For my mother, born of strict atheist stock, it

notes from my grandmother outlining the dishes

wasn’t the Hindu prohibitions that weighed

of her childhood.

heavily on her during the TWA flight from Paris to New York in 1974. Nor was it the famous

I imagine my mother six miles above the North

bittersweetness of exile. It wasn’t a fear of flying

Atlantic, mid-air between Europe and the

either, even though this was her first time in the

Americas, blissfully unaware of the importance

G R O W D I G I TA L | T H E F O O D O F E X I L E S 42

of these notes until she is served an unremark-

vegetables tasted off. There were no daily trips

able tray at lunch time. She tells this story to this

to the bazaar to identify provisions that had been

day, of making her first journey outside of India,

freshly picked from the fields the night before.

of unwrapping the platter, of her utter shock and

Instead, food was shipped from far away. Month-

horror at seeing this plate of salad greens, with

old produce was arranged in chilled grocery store

a plastic cup of dressing on the side, and realizing

displays to be picked up on the weekends and

that it was meant to be eaten: what am I, a goat?

molder in the fridge all week.

My grandmother’s notes may have seemed like

To my mother and father, my grandmother’s notes

a refuge, but, stored in a blue binder under the

were nostalgia: simultaneously hope and torture.

counter in a tidy house in the Western Suburbs

My sister and I have inherited this sense of comfort

of Chicago, they came to form the basis of a life

and loss. Almost every meal we ate growing up was

of frustrated meals and homesickness. The recipes

compared to the ideal from India. And the losses

had to be adapted to the realities of the new

would continue. As adults, my sister and I have

land they found themselves in. The closest store

gone to great lengths to recreate these meals, only

that sold the necessary spices was an hour drive

to find that they are a culinary language we don’t

from the house. Fish, which forms the basis of

quite understand. My grandmother’s notes are

the Bengali diet (and, some might say, the Bengali

hints at a heritage we will never know, having been

psyche) was too expensive. They had to get

cut off from the India of our parents and relatives.

it frozen; a flavorless, bland simulacrum of the

It is not everything, but the food is a key to the

fresh fish back home. Even familiar fruits and

world my parents left behind: I cannot let it go.

As part of this striving, I have been laboring

tasted the warm chop from her hands, her notes

recently to recreate bhejitebil chop — ​fried vegetable

kept under the counter on yellowing paper, the

cutlets. My grandmother’s notes on this are odd

flight from Paris to New York.

and hint at the food’s Anglo-​Indian origin, transliterating the English “vegetable” rather than using

Where does food come from?

the Bengali word, anaz. The recipe suggests seasoning cooked potatoes, beets, and carrots mixed

There is nothing ancient about the tea leaves my

with raisins and peanuts, and scooping them

father fusses over every morning: they come

into oblong balls to be breaded and deep-fried.

from plants that were introduced to the soil of

It is almost identical to a Scotch egg, adapting the

the Darjeeling hills and the Assam valley by

deep-fried minced pork dish to vegetarian India.

British merchants and landowners less than 200

G R O W D I G I TA L | T H E F O O D O F E X I L E S

years ago. My mother’s vegetable chop? I can’t

43

When I tell my mother about my most recent

pinpoint its beginnings, but can start with each

attempt, there is a pause in the conversation. It

of its component parts: the modern carrot is

dawns on me — ​and not for the first time — ​that

thought to have been bred in Afghanistan in the

I’m a late receiver in an international game of

10th century CE; beetroot is much older, Middle-​

recipe telephone. These fritters are a strong

Eastern or Egyptian in origin, probably spread

enough attempt, but are ultimately a misunder-

across Europe and Asia by ancient trade. Potatoes

standing of the food; a rushed shortcut that

come to Europe from the Andes mountains in

reminds my mother of everything that has been

the late sixteenth century. They made their way

lost over the years: of my grandmother, of having

to India via Portuguese traders in the South and

were introduced to Bengal through the British.

Perhaps it dawns on Egypt that these calamities

Around the same time, Job Charnock of the East

are divine miracles as their technology begins to

India Company first tastes khichuri.

fail. A plague of gnats comes next, the magicians falter. Soon, they are inundated by the plagues of the locusts, of the cattle, of boils, of pestilence, of hail, of darkness. Despite the suffering of the

We must remember: the plagues that were visited

Egyptians, despite the one clear solution in front

upon Egypt were also miracles.

of him — ​to release Moses and his people — ​it takes his personal loss, his first-born, for Pharaoh

The disasters Moses and Aaron inflict on the state

to recognize the divine source of this devastation.

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are a clear mark of divine retribution. But in the

44

logic of Pharaoh’s Egypt, the ability to reproduce

Were there omens? Before the plagues, before

and match a rival technology implicitly ensures

the suffering inflicted on his people and the State,

the ability to remedy or reverse it. First, the waters

were there signs that all this tragedy could have

are turned to blood; Egypt becomes a land of

been averted?

starvation and scarcity. But Pharaoh and the magicians are on familiar ground: they are able to do the same; there is no change in course. Next, there is the plague of frogs called from the waters by

The tools we’ve developed for averting our

Aaron’s staff. Again, the magicians match miracle

impending apocalypse seem quaint, but have

with technology; no reason for concern.

proven themselves elegant and powerful. The ones

G R O W D I G I TA L | T H E F O O D O F E X I L E S 45

I know best as a biologist have been fighting

The greatest achievements of the nineteenth

hunger and disease since the dawn of civilization.

century killed the God responsible for these

Archaeological evidence of beer-​brewing comes

miracles. The same Louis Pasteur, who developed

from the Near East 12,000 years ago. We’ve known,

the germ theory of disease and understood the

shaped, and exploited these microbes from before

principles of developing immunity through vac-

agrarian society and cities had been conceived

cines, also demonstrated that it is not magic, but

of or formed: grain, left unattended, will

yeast — ​Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a single-celled

bubble and produce potable alcohol, safer for

fungus — ​that turns sugar into gasses and alcohol.

consumption than polluted water or food.

The story of understanding, cultivating, and

This technology, the ability to produce safe food

industrializing this fungus is one that has led to

and drink, is so powerful, so central to our

the development of biology as a field over the past

conception of civilization that it is etched in the

century — ​not only for the production of alcohol

earliest forms of literature: in the epic of

and bread, but, perhaps more importantly, for

Gilgamesh dating from second millennium BCE,

understanding the fundamental processes that

the wildman Enkidu is tamed by the prostitute

are at the heart of all life.

Shamhat, and becomes civilized only after he eats bread and becomes drunk on beer. It is

Today, our technology is one of our last hopes for

in religion: the earliest recipe we have of

addressing the challenges posed by a changing

brewing beer comes from a hymn to Ninkasi, the

climate and dwindling resources. Yet, as I prepare

Sumerian goddess of bread and beer, scrawled

dinner, I wonder what food will taste like when

on a clay tablet roughly four thousand years ago.

the plants and animals we have known, loved,

and consumed are no longer here. Our food

In isolation, we still seek to convene with each

may resemble the food my parents and the

other. On evenings and weekends, I meet with

generations before them have loved, and imbued

friends and family all over the world on my laptop.

with meaning, or it may be a new creation

In fact, this is the way that I regularly access my

without precedent. Regardless, this stuff will be

father who is currently stranded in West Bengal,

how I mark my place in the world and in history.

having failed to leave India before travel restrictions were imposed. It’s how I tell him and my

But where has this food come from?

mother about the miracle that has taken place

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during the plague: that a bolus of cells has been

46

In the small hours of lockdown, I try to remem-

extracted from a woman half-way across the

ber that this plague, too, is a miracle. But now,

country. That now there is a growing marble

we can match this reality with technology. The

inside the womb of yet another woman Paul and

tools we have used to engineer microorganisms

I have never met before, but have somehow

for fighting scarcity have, almost overnight,

managed to communicate with more often than

made The Virus knowable. Our new technology

we do with most friends and family. My parents,

is already beginning to bear fruit: at work, we

God willing, may see the next generation.

have transitioned from our regular research to developing tests instead. We search for the virus the quickest, cheapest way possible and fight this plague by searching for it among our friends and neighbors.

The omens! You may grow up to see and taste our lovely navel oranges, but in all likelihood, in your lifetime, they will disappear. I have wished for nothing more than to feed you mouthfuls of the chocolate I grew up on, but that, too, is fading away in the world we inherit. Of course there will be chocolate; it will not be the same. Perhaps, if I am able to trick you, I can remind you of the precious Kashmiri saffron your grandmother would have loved to use to bless the sweets for your first birthday; even as I write this, that is increasingly unlikely. I hope for my sake, you will hold onto this false memory. It is G R O W D I G I TA L | T H E F O O D O F E X I L E S

the tragedy of my fatherhood that you will not know

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the world that I’ve lived in and loved. I will try to explain our exile. I hope you understand.

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author

i l lu s t r at o r

Sudeep Agarwala is a yeast geneticist and

Tomekah George is an illustrator and occasional

Program Director at Ginkgo Bioworks, focused

animator, whose work can be described as

on platforms for protein production. He also

somewhere between a collage and painting.

writes occasionally.

She is based in the UK.

A manufactured organism.

Credit: Douglas J. Blackiston – ​Levin Lab, Allen Discovery Center

dialogue

JUNE

2 9, 2 0 2 0

Is DNA Hardware or Software?

A conversation with Michael Levin about Xenobots, the world’s first living robots. by ch r ist i na ag a pa k is

i

n m id - ja nua ry,

a group of computer scientists and biologists from

the University of Vermont, Tufts, and Harvard announced that they had created an entirely new life form — ​xenobots, the world’s first

living robots. They had harvested skin and cardiac cells from frog embryos,

designed and sculpted them to perform particular tasks with the help of an evolutionary algorithm, and then set them free to play. The result — ​it’s

alive! — ​was a programmable organism. Named after the African clawed frog, Xenopus laevis, from which they were harvested, these teams of cells were wholly liberated from constraints of frog DNA. Their behavior was determined by their shape, their design. They can already perform simple tasks under the microscope. And due to their minuscule size and great adaptability, they could soon be put to work in the human body to deliver new medical treatments, or out in the world to do environmental clean-ups.

Naturally, this raises all kinds of questions and challenges for both humanity at large and synthetic biology. Earlier this year, Grow’s Christina Agapakis discussed some of them with Michael Levin, one of the scientific minds behind xenobots. This mind-​bending conversation delves into how Levin and his team discovered and conceptualized a new life form, the possible applications they envision, and what this all says about the different ways computer scientists and synthetic biologists think about DNA.

CHRISTINA AGAPAKIS:

I’m interested in the

think that what the genome does is nail down

language you use to explain these xenobots — ​

the hardware that these cells have: the proteins,

how you conceptualize what some people

the signaling components, and the computa-

are calling a new life form. What inspired this

tional components. When these things are

project? What kicked off this research direction?

actually run in multi-scale, biological systems, there’s an interesting kind of software that

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MICHAEL LEVIN:

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Our group studies cellular decision-

drives the structure and function. We’ve been

​making. We’re interested in what is called basal

working for years now on the reprogrammability

cognition: the ability of all kinds of biology — ​from

of that software — ​the idea that you can give

molecular networks to cells and tissues, from

cells and tissues novel stimuli or experiences and

whole organisms to swarms — ​to make decisions,

thus change how they make decisions in terms

learn from their environments, store memories.

of morphogenesis, in terms of behavior, without

We were thinking about new forms of minimal

actually changing their hardware.

model systems that are synthetic or bio-​engineered, where we could build basic proto-​cognitive

CHRISTINA:

systems from scratch and really have the ability

from how the synthetic biology world typically

to understand where their capacities come from.

uses words like hardware and software. When

That’s fascinating because it’s different

folks at Ginkgo, or other molecular or synthetic We are also interested in the plasticity of cells

biologists, talk about software, they often

and tissues. What can they do that is different

mean the DNA code. What do you mean when

from their genomic defaults? In our group, we

you say software?

MICHAEL:

I have a completely different perspective.

at this from more of a computational perspective.

I don’t think DNA is the software. Not that

The important thing about software is that if

only one metaphor is valid, but the one that we

your hardware is good enough — ​and I’m going

have found useful is this idea that the real-time

to argue that probably all life at this point is good

physiology of the organism is the software. My

enough — ​then the software is rewritable. That

background is in computer science, so I come

means you can greatly alter what it does without meddling with the hardware.

People are very comfortable with this in the computer world. When you switch from Photoshop to Microsoft Word, you don’t get out your soldering iron and start rewiring your computer, right? In fact, that is exactly how computation was done in the 1940s, and I think that’s where biology is today. It’s all about the hardware.

Everybody’s really interested in genomic editing 100 designs for a walking organism composed of passive skin tissue (cyan) and contractile heart muscle (red). Computers model the dynamics of the biological building blocks and use them like LEGO bricks to build different organism anatomies. The rainbow streak traces its behavior in simulation.

(Credit: Sam Kriegman)

and rewiring gene regulatory networks. These

application of ion channel drugs, inducing a

are all important things, but they are still very

permanent change in the animal’s body plan.

close to the machine level. In our group, we think of the DNA as producing cellular hardware that

CHRISTINA:

It’s actually electric.

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is actually implementing physiological software,

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which is rewritable. That means you can greatly

MICHAEL:

alter the behavior of the system without actually

our lab works on developmental bio-​electricity — ​

having to go in and exchange any of the parts.

electrical communication and computation in

I think that’s the amazing thing about biology.

non-neural tissue. We’ve discovered that the

The plasticity is quite incredible.

planarian’s tissues store this steady state electri-

It’s physically electric. A large chunk of

cal pattern, which dictates how many heads they I’ll give you a simple example of what I mean by

are supposed to have. Their genetics give you a

software. We have these flatworms, planarians,

piece of hardware, which self-​organizes an elec-

and they have a head and a tail. What we’ve

trical pattern that causes cells to build one head,

shown is that there’s an electric circuit that

one tail. That’s the default. Now that we under-

stores the information of how many heads the

stand how this works, and it took a good 15 years

planarian is supposed to have and where the

to get to this point, we can go in and rewrite that

heads are supposed to be. The important thing

electrical state. The cool thing about that circuit

about this circuit is that it has this interesting

is that, like any good memory circuit, once you’ve

memory aspect. We can transiently rewrite the

rewritten it, it’s stable, it saves the information,

stable state of this electric circuit with a brief

unless you change it back.

You can rewrite it so that, if you cut the worm in

structures in the tissue that serve as instructive

half, it creates worms with two heads, no tail.

information for how it grows.

Those two-headed worms continue to make twoheaded worms, if you cut them in half again. All

CHRISTINA:

of these worms have completely normal genomic

to xenobots?

And how did this research lead

sequences. We haven’t touched the DNA at all. The information on how many heads you’re supposed

MICHAEL:

to have is not directly nailed down by the genetics.

system where we could see this from scratch. In

We wanted a synthetic, bottom-up

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particular, we wanted to understand not just the

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People are comfortable with this in electronics:

hardware of cells, but the algorithms that enable

you turn it on and it does something. If it’s an

them to cooperate in groups. Josh Bongard at

interesting piece of electronics, you can reprogram

UVM is a leader in artificial intelligence and

it to do something else. It turns out that biological

robotics. He and I have had many conversations

electric circuits are exactly like this. They

about how biology can inform the design of

have incredible plasticity. They are very good at

adaptive and swarm robotics and AI, and how the

enabling some of these electrical states to be

tools and deep concepts from machine learning

rewritten. Once we know how to do it, you can

and evolutionary computation can help under-

actually reprogram those pattern memories.

stand different levels in biology. He was a very

These are structures in the tissue that tell the cells

natural partner for this work, and we decided to

what to do at a large scale. That’s the kind of

establish a tight integration between computa-

thing I mean by software. There are physiological

tional modeling and biological implementation.

We took some cells from a frog embryo, and we

once again cooperate with each other. They build

let them re-​envision their multicellularity.

a synthetic living machine with behaviors that are

Individual cells are very competent. They do all

completely different from what the default would

sorts of things on their own. How do you convince

be. They look nothing like a tadpole, nothing

them to work together toward much bigger goals?

like a frog embryo. We have lots of videos of them

Cells in the body work on massive outcomes,

doing interesting things. They wander around,

things like building a limb, or building an eye, or

they do mazes, they cooperate in groups, they com­-

face remodeling. They are called upon to do it and

municate damage signals to each other. They work

they stop when it’s done. So, when a salamander

together to build things out of other loose cells.

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loses a limb and the limb is rebuilt, you can see that

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this collective knows what a correct salamander

I think what we’re scratching at here is just the

looks like, because it stops all that activity as

beginning of understanding what cells are willing

soon as the limb is complete. We wanted to know:

to do under novel environments, and how plastic

how do cell collectives store and process these

they really are. That was the origin of this project:

kinds of large-scale anatomical pattern memories?

to try to understand what cells can do beyond their default group behaviors. That’s what we have here.

We liberated the frog cells from the boundary conditions of the embryo. And we said to these

CHRISTINA:

cells: here you are, in a novel circumstance, in a

ethicist Jeantine Lunshof on the next phase of

novel environment: what do you want to do? What

this project. What are the ethics of manipulating

we observed is that the cells are very happy to

life in this way?

You’re collaborating with philosopher/

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MICHAEL:

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In terms of the ethics of the platform

from the ’60s — ​you know, these things that are

itself, I don’t find it particularly far past the range

on the car assembly line. That’s a very narrow

of things that have already been done. We [as a

and, in 2020, not very helpful view of what a robot

society] manipulate living cells all the time. We

actually is. We are still trying to come up with

have a food industry where we manipulate whole

good definitions for all these things. What do we

organisms, adult mammals, who we can be quite

really mean when we say machine? If you think

certain have some degree of agency. In that sense,

some things are not machines, what does that

I don’t think these things push the envelope on any

mean? And what do you think they have that

ethical issues. I do think that they highlight the inad-

makes them different from machines? This raises

equacies of the definitions that we throw around

very interesting philosophical questions.

on a daily basis. There are all sorts of terms we think we understand, people use them all the time:

CHRISTINA:

animal, living being, synthetic, creation, machine,

are doing — ​philosophical, conceptual, perhaps

robot. Lots of work in robotics and synthetic biology

even artistic work. I’d like to talk a little more

has been showing us recently that we actually

about the practical uses and implications. What

don’t understand what those things are at all.

types of applications do you imagine? If we’re

That’s part of the work your xenobots

in the 1940s or 1950s of biology: how do these look I gave a talk once and I referred to a caterpillar as

50 years from now?

“a soft-bodied robot” and some people complained about that. They said, oh my God, how can you call

MICHAEL:

it a robot? That’s because they’re thinking of robots

near-term applications. You could imagine these

I would start with what I would call

things roaming the lymph nodes and collecting

This is the kind of model system that can tell us

cancer cells, sculpting the insides of arthritic knee

a lot about where true plasticity comes from.

joints. You could imagine them collecting toxins

What are the strategies that you might want to

in waterways. Once we learn to program their

build into your robots or your algorithms that

behavior, which is the next thing that we’re doing,

would allow them to respond to novelty the way

you could imagine a million useful applications,

that living cells in collectives do?

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both inside the body and out in the environment.

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Individual cells are very competent. They do all sorts of things on their own. How do you convince them to work together toward much bigger goals?

— Michael Levin

The medium-term applications, I think, are more in the fields of Regenerative Medicine and AI, specifically looking at how to program collectives.

If you are going to rebuild somebody’s arm, or a limb, or an eye, or something complex like that, I think that we are going to have to understand how cells are motivated to work together. Trying to micromanage the creation of an arm from stem-cell derivatives, I think, is not going to happen in any of our lifetimes.

We need to understand how you program swarms to have the kinds of goal states that we want them to have, so they can build organs in the body, or

for transplantation, or for complex, synthetic

babysit the process. You figure out how to convince

living machines. If we figure out how this works,

the cells what they should be doing and then you

and where these anatomical goal states come

let the system figure out how to do it on its own.

from, we will be able to make drastic improvements in regenerative medicine. It’s not just

CHRISTINA:

that we might have these bots running around

of biology, but I think our narratives are so domi-

our bodies. It’s the fact that we will be able to

nated by the idea of molecular control — ​by DNA

program our own cell collectives at the anatomical

as this central driver of everything. There are

level, not at the genetic level.

synthetic biologists who basically say that DNA

Maybe it’s an accident in the history

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is the only thing that matters. You’re highlighting

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The idea is to understand how cell collectives

a very different perspective. You’re saying the

encode what it is that they’re building, and how

stimuli plus the cell and its existing hardware

you could go about rewriting this — ​to offload the

can create a totally different outcome. That has

computational complexity onto the cells them-

fascinating implications for how we think about

selves and not try to micromanage it. Our recent

genetic determinism in synthetic biology, and,

paper on frog leg regeneration is a good example

more generally, in human behavior, in human

of that. Frogs normally do not regenerate their legs,

outcomes, and so many other different things.

unlike salamanders, and we figured out how to make them do it. The intervention is 24 hours, and

MICHAEL:

then the actual growth takes 13 months. So it’s a

think about this, which is the progress in com-

very early signal. We don’t hang around and try to

puter science. I am not saying that living things

I think we have a good framework to

are computers, at least not like the computers

is eminently reprogrammable. I think we need

you and I use today. What I mean is: computers

to respect the fact that evolution has given

are fundamentally a very wide class of devices

us this amazing multi-scale goal-driven system

that are in an important sense reprogrammable.

where the goals are rewritable.

My point about DNA is that when people think about genetic determinism, they’re not giving the DNA enough respect. DNA doesn’t give you hardware that always does the same thing and is determined. DNA is amazing. DNA has been

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shaped by evolution to produce hardware that

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AI methods automatically design diverse candidate lifeforms in simulation (top row) to perform some desired function. Transferable designs are then created using a cell-based construction toolkit to realize living systems (bottom row) with the predicted behaviors. (Credit: top, Sam Kriegman; bottom, Douglas J. Blackiston)

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I’ll give you another very simple example.

This shows that the genetics don’t just give you a

Tadpoles need to become frogs. And tadpole

system that somehow moves everything in the

faces need to be deformed to become frog faces:

same way every single time. They give you a system

the eyes have to move, the jaws have to move,

that encodes the rough outline of a correct frog

all this stuff has to move around. It used to be

face, and then it has this error minimization

thought that what the genetics encodes during

scheme where what the hardware does is say,

metamorphosis is a set of movements that

wherever we’re at now, I’m going to keep taking steps

would make that happen. If every tadpole looks

forward to reduce that error to as low a level as

the same, and every frog looks the same, then

possible. That’s just an example of this goal-​directed

that works, right? You move the eyes, you move

plasticity. And I think it’s important to realize that

the mouth, everything moves a prescribed

that’s the beauty of the hardware that evolution has

distance in a certain direction, and you’re good.

left us with. That’s the trick. The hardware is much

To test this, we made what we called Picasso

more capable than we’ve been giving it credit for.

tadpoles. Everything is in the wrong place: the mouth is up here, the eyes are sideways, the

CHRISTINA:

jaws are displaced, everything is just completely

genetic factors, it does seem like you’re pointing

moved around. What we found is that those

at what’s fundamentally missing from how we

tadpoles still become pretty normal frogs.

think about synthetic biology and genetics more

Everything moves around in really unnatural

broadly. There’s the critique of genetic studies

paths, and they keep moving until a normal frog

of human behavior that basically says: you can

face is established.

never really control for all the variables — ​social,

Hearing you talk about these non-​

environmental, whatever — ​so your studies of the

want to make, say, bio-​engineered bladders, a

genes for almost anything are going to be fatally

sphere, you might get away with literally micro-

flawed. Then conversely, if you are only seeing a

managing this thing directly with some stem cells

small picture of what it means for a human to

and growing them on a scaffold. But if you really

be anything — ​healthy, smart, athletic, beautiful — ​

want to make large-scale control of complex

engineering someone’s DNA with those outcomes

anatomy, I would say there’s not a compelling

in mind is probably not going to get you what

history of capabilities today that would suggest

you want, and we should focus on the ways we

that we have good anatomical control at the

can change a person’s environment that will make

genetic level. We are not very good at it right now.

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them healthier, smarter, happier etc. If biology

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is so plastic, why do you think the genetic idea

A lot of people make a promissory argument.

and the dream of designer babies persists?

They say, turn the crank, keep going, we’re going to sequence a whole bunch more stuff. We’re

MICHAEL:

I want to be clear: I’m not denigrating

going to do a lot more transcriptomics. We’re going

genetics in the slightest. I think understanding the

to do a lot of genomics. We’re going to keep at it

hardware is critical. You’re not going to get very

and someday we’ll just be able to do it. You want

far without understanding your hardware. And

seven fingers? You got it. You want gills? Fine. I don’t

I think that genetics is essential for that. In some

find that promise very compelling.

cases, working at the level of hardware is fine. If you want to fix a flashlight, you can do everything

You could spend all your time drilling down into

you need to do at the hardware level. Or if people

the molecules that it’s made of, but at some point,

you have to ask yourself, what are they in a cybernetic sense? What’s the function of this thing?

What are the control loops? What are the internal capabilities? Is it reprogrammable? Is its structure modular? All of these things are completely invisible at the level of the hardware. I think it would be incredibly unwise to throw away all the lessons of engineering, of cybernetics, of computer science. Can you imagine where our

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information technology would be today, if every

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DNA has been shaped by evolution to produce hardware that is eminently reprogrammable.

— Michael Levin

change you wanted to make you had to make at the hardware level, or even in machine code?

I mean, it’d be insane. We wouldn’t have anything.

MICHAEL: CHRISTINA:

I do molecular stuff. I live in that world.

Some of this stuff is absolutely ancient.

I mean, back in the ’40s, you have this biologist

I’m interested in your critique or challenge of that.

who took a paramecium, or a similar kind of single-

Maybe there is a limitation to how we’re imagin-

cell animal, which is covered with these little

ing things. You might be able to sort of open up

hairs that all point the same way. He took a little

much more interesting questions and possibilities

glass needle, cut a little square into the surface

if you’re looking at how things grow. How did you

of the thing, turned it 180 degrees, and put it back.

arrive at some of these more holistic perspectives?

An amazing technical feat. Now the hairs are

pointing the wrong way in that little square. And

So when it makes a daughter cell, it just copies

what he found is that when the paramecium

whatever it has. The non-​genetic piece of informa-

divides and has offspring, all of the offspring now

tion is critical. This is the original demonstration

have little squares of hair that are pointing the

of true epigenetics. This information is simply

wrong way. Why is that? It’s because the structure

not in the genome.

of the cortex is templated onto the previous one.

In our view, turning on and off specific genes

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(Left) Five red-cyan designs are placed amid a lattice of simulated debris, in yellow (right) the traces carved by a swarm of these organisms as they move through a field of particulate matter. (Credit: left, Sam Kriegman; right, Douglas J. Blackiston)

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to make specific cell types is such a tiny corner of all this. It’s critical, but we’ve got to think more broadly, in pattern control, in large scale

goal-​directedness, and think about the computa-

will be able to draw whatever living creature you

tions that all these different levels are doing

want, in whatever functional anatomy you want.

to get where they’re going. There’s no way we’re

It might be for something with an application here

going to do what we need to do in biology

on Earth. It might be an organ for transplantation.

without an appreciation of those other levels.

It might be a creature that you’re going to use in colonizing some far off world. Whatever it’s going

CHRISTINA:

One thing we’re interested in doing in

to be, you are going to be able to sit down and

Grow is outlining future scenarios, the possibilities

specify at the level of anatomy, the structure and

for biology. What’s the end goal for xenobots?

function of a living creature at the high level,

G R O W D I G I TA L | I S D N A H A R D WA R E O R S O F T WA R E ?

and then this will sort of compile down and let

65

MICHAEL:

I’ll jump way forward because it’s more

you build the thing in real life.

fun that way. Regeneration and limb regeneration is critical, but we can fantasize further than

Right now, we can only do this in a very simple set

that. In the sort of asymptote of all of this, I see

of few circumstances, but ultimately if we really

two things that I think should be possible. On

knew how this worked, we would be able to have

the one hand, I think this is progressing towards

complete control. People talk about constraints

a total control of growth and form. At some point,

on morphogenesis and on development. I think

when we really know what we’re doing — ​when

those are constraints on our thinking, not on

we actually know how morphology is handled — ​

the actual cells themselves. I think you should be

you will be able to sit down in front of a kind of

able to build pretty much anything within the

a Computer Aided Design (CAD) system, and you

laws of physics. Almost anything.

CHRISTINA:

You talk about not wanting to

micromanage the cells, but you’re sort of shaping

goal is to convince the system to do what you want it to do not to try to build it up brick by brick.

the growth, you’re facilitating and influencing it.

What do you mean when you say control?

It’s a top down view of control. Your goal is to specify the end goal, and let the system figure out

G R O W D I G I TA L | I S D N A H A R D WA R E O R S O F T WA R E ?

MICHAEL:

66

To use another super-​anthropomorphic

how to get there. That works very well with

phrase, I think our goal is to convince the cells to

systems that have the necessary IQ. So that might

do what we want them to do. Your goal is to exploit

work with your kids, and it might work with

the computational capacity of the system, and to

various other animals. It doesn’t work real well

understand how it is that you communicate your

with a cuckoo clock. It just doesn’t, because its

goals to the growing tissue. We’re already starting

hardware system isn’t amenable to that kind of

experiments on basically behavior-​shaping the

control. As always in science, you have to figure

tissue with rewards and punishments. Humans

out when these kinds of approaches are appropri-

have figured out over 10,000 years ago that we

ate and when are they not. There’s a large class of

don’t have any idea how the animal works inside.

systems where that’s useless, and a massive class

But what we do know is that if you give it rewards

of biological systems where I think that’s going to

and punishments you can achieve outcomes that

be the way to go. I think that’s part of our future.

you like. This ability of living things to change their behavior, to make their world better, is

One thing I think this is showing us is that

ancient, and that’s how rewards and punishments

focusing on the brain as the source of inspiration

work. This probably works all the way down. Your

for machine learning is derived from a very

specialized architecture. I’ve been suggesting that

CHRISTINA:

Bacterial intelligence.

a true general purpose intelligence is much more likely to arise not from mimicking the structure

MICHAEL:

of the core of the human cortex, or anything like

individual cells building an organ and being able

that, but from actually taking seriously the

to figure out how to get to the correct final

computational principles that life has been apply-

outcome from different starting positions,

ing since the very beginning.

despite the fact that you went in there and mixed

Exactly. And not just bacterial — ​

everything around. I think a lot of our true CHRISTINA:

Paramecia?

general AI in the future is going to come from

G R O W D I G I TA L | I S D N A H A R D WA R E O R S O F T WA R E ?

this sort of work on basal cognition. I guess

67

MICHAEL:

Even before that. Bacteria biofilms.

my theme is consistent. I think we need to step

All that stuff has been solving problems in ways

back from any kind of uniqueness of the human

that we have yet to figure out. They’re able to

condition, and try to generalize it more and

generalize, they’re able to learn from experience

more broadly. We need to take evolution seriously.

with a small number of examples. They make self-models. It’s amazing what they can do. That

This conversation is Part 1 of Grow’s coverage of

should be the inspiration. I think the future

xenobots. Continue reading Part 2, “The Lab

of machine learning and AI technologies will not

Philosopher,” where we interview Harvard ethicist

be based on brains, but on this much more

and philosopher Jeantine Lunshof on the long-term

ancient, general ability of life to solve problems

ethical and the philosophical implications of

in novel domains.

the discovery.

CO NTACT TH E R E SE ARCH ERS: M I C H A E L LE V I N Director, Allen Discovery Center at Tufts University Associate Faculty, Wyss Institute at Harvard University drmichaellevin.org | @drmichaellevin

author

Christina Agapakis is a biologist, writer, and artist. She is Creative Director at Ginkgo Bioworks.

Grow is a magazine that tells the unfolding story of synthetic biology, published by Ginkgo Bioworks and edited by Massive Science.

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