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The biophysics of life, exploring how light & energy shape biology, with biophysicist Dr. Nirosha Murugan.

Episode Summary: Dr. Murugan discusses the role of biophysics in biology, focusing on how light, particularly biophotons emitted by cells, influences processes like wound healing, neural activity, and cancer detection; how microtubules may act as biological fiber optics, the impact of modern light environments on health; her work inducing limb regeneration in frogs using silk hydrogels and growth factors; cancer as an energetic dysfunction; potential of non-invasive photonic diagnostics; the need for new tools to study these phenomena.

About the guest: Nirosha Murugan, PhD is a biophysicist and assistant professor at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario. Her lab investigates the biophysics of life.

Note: Podcast episodes are fully available to paid subscribers on the M&M Substack and everyone on YouTube. Partial versions are available elsewhere. Transcript and other information on Substack.

Key Conversation Points:

• Cells emit biophotons, ultra-weak light tied to metabolism, which may carry information for processes like immune response and neural communication.
• Microtubules might function as biological fiber optics, potentially guiding light within cells for signaling purposes.
• Red and near-infrared light can accelerate wound healing and reduce inflammation, likely by modulating mitochondrial activity.
• Cancer cells emit distinct photonic signatures, which could enable non-invasive diagnostics by detecting light differences from healthy tissues.
• Modern light environments, unlike natural sunlight, may subtly affect health by altering biological responses to electromagnetic signals.
• Biological systems act as metamaterials, patterning energy flow in ways that constrain and shape molecular and behavioral outcomes.

Related episode:

• M&M 221: Regenerative Energy & the Light Inside You | Jack Kruse

*Not medical advice.

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