Recreational Biology: Topological puzzles in cell biology | Manu Prakash (Stanford)

Recreational mathematics involves mathematical puzzles and games, often appealing to children and untrained adults, inspiring their further study of the subject. Can a similar analogy be drawn in biology? Without making any claims of usefulness, we will explore a wide range of puzzles and paradoxes from the living world: Can single cells be toroidal in nature? What would an animal from Flatland look like? Can cells “literally” talk to each other? Can single cells think? Can cells act as a mason and build out of rocks? Finally, we will discuss and share initiatives to democratize science and highlight the role of curiosity and observation in exploring the microscopic world.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Manu Prakash is an Associate Professor in the Department of Bioengineering, Biology (courtesy) and Oceans (courtesy) at Stanford University, working in the field of physical biology and oceanography. He runs a curiosity-driven lab at Stanford combining his passion for basic science while also developing ultra-affordable and accessible technologies with the goal of democratizing access to scientific tools - a term he calls Frugal Science.
His interdisciplinary lab at Stanford uses theory and experiments to understand how computation is embodied in biological matter. Finally, the lab engages broader communities in inventing and distributing “frugal science” tools to democratize access to science (Foldscope, Abuzz), diagnostics of deadly diseases like malaria and convening global citizen science communities to tackle planetary scale environmental challenges, such as mosquito surveillance or plankton surveillance by citizen sailors mapping the ocean in the age of Anthropocene.
Manu grew up in India and got his PhD from MIT. He was a Junior Fellow at Harvard Society of Fellows and a 2016 MacArthur Fellow.
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