Nigel Goldenfeld on the Genetic Code

In this episode, I speak with Prof. Nigel Goldenfeld. Nigel is a Professor of Physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has tackled some fundamental questions in biology, and he provides some very unique thoughts on how he thinks about biological problems from the perspective of a physicist. 

 

(00:24) -- how Nigel got into biology

(03:40) -- overview of the genetic code

(21:15) -- genetic code as an innovation protocol 

(32:25) -- quantitative approaches in biology

(34:55) -- energy vs information centric view of biology

(39:10) -- biology as chemistry/physics 

(40:56) -- biology as a reverse engineering problem