Discussion today on if we need a new physics of living systems & consciousness
There is a dialogue today with Dr. Anita Goel & Bernardo Kastrup on why 20th-century physics frameworks, built primarily for closed systems, may need to be revisited to come to terms with life and consciousness.
Dr. Anita Goel, MD, PhD, is a physicist, physician-scientist, inventor, and deep tech pioneer in the field of nanobiophysics. As Founder, Chairman, CEO, and Scientific Director of the Nanobiosym Research Institute and Incubator, she is advancing new theoretical frameworks and experimental methods for elucidating the physics of life and living systems.
Inspired by Erwin Schrödinger’s What Is Life?, Dr. Goel’s research is driven by a fundamental question: What physical principles distinguish inert matter from systems that self-organize, process information, and exhibit life, intelligence, sentience, or some combination thereof?
Using DNA-processing molecular nanomachines as experimentally tractable information-processing systems, Dr. Goel studies how living matter reads and writes information at the single-molecule level. Her research spans a continuum from nanobiophysics to quantum-scale phenomena. She examines how mechanical forces, electromagnetic fields, and potentially non-trivial quantum effects shape molecular dynamics.
As the Chairman and CEO of Nanobiosym Diagnostics (NBSDx), Dr. Goel is commercializing some of her nanophysics and digital diagnostics innovations.
In this dialogue with Bernardo we'll invite discussion on:
- Open systems, why 20th-century physics frameworks, built primarily for closed systems, may need to be revisited to come to terms with life and consciousness
- The need for experimental proof - the biological equivalent of a "double-slit experiment" her research programme probing living systems at the nanoscale and a roadmap to detect non-trivial quantum effects in the machinery of life
Named one of the World’s “Top Science and Technology Innovators” by MIT Technology Review and one of the “World’s Most Influential Visionaries in Biotech” by Scientific American, Dr. Goel has collaborated very closely with multiple Nobel Prize winners in her bold foray into the uncharted waters between physics and biology.
She has been recognized globally by prestigious honors including 3 DARPA Breakthrough Awards, 2 USAID Grand Challenge Awards, NASA’s Galactic Challenge Award (with Elon Musk’s SpaceX), the first-ever XPRIZE awarded in healthcare, and multiple awards from the DOD, DOE, AFOSR, NSF, DHHS, and FDA. Dr. Goel is the inventor on multiple patents worldwide and has published in leading scientific journals like Nature Nanotechnology , Scientific American, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Additionally, Dr. Goel has been featured in 2 films: i) “Awake: The Life of Yogananda"(2014), about the life and teachings of the man who introduced yoga to the West, where she discusses the science behind yoga and meditation; and ii) “Quantum Convergence: The New Science of Consciousness” (2025), where she appears alongside Nobel Laureates Roger Penrose and the Dalai Lama and discusses how our current 20th century physics does not yet adequately describe life, living systems, and consciousness.
Dr. Goel has also served as an expert on the U.S. Senate for the $1.5 billion National Nanotechnology Initiative; an Advisory Council to the U.S. President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) on its Strategy for American Innovation; as Board Member on the Triennial Review Board of the National Academy of Sciences; as a Member of the Committee on Manufacturing Innovation of the National Academy of Engineering; and as an Advisory Council Member for CIFAR.
Dr. Goel holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in Physics from Harvard University, an MD from the Harvard-MIT Joint Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST) at Harvard Medical School, and a BS in Physics with Honors & Distinction from Stanford University.
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