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S15E2 - When the Cycle Flips: Oxygen, Cancer, and Ageing
You are listening to Curiosity Curated. I am Zong.
In the previous episode, we ended with a radical claim — that life is not fundamentally about genes, not about information, and not even about survival. Life, at its core, is about flux — the continuous, directed flow of energy and matter through constrained metabolic pathways.
We saw how that flux is organized around cycles, especially the Krebs cycle, how this architecture likely predates genes, cells, and evolution itself, and how it may have emerged spontaneously from planetary geology, driven by energy gradients in deep-sea vents on early Earth.
By the end of that story, life already existed — at least in chemical form. But that life was fragile.Energy-limited. Bound tightly to its environment. And the planet it lived on did not stay the same.
Guided by Nick Lane and his book Transformer, in this episode, we explore what happens next —the moment when life radically expands its energetic budget, when the planet itself is transformed, when complexity becomes possible, and when fragility is permanently introduced.
Specifically, we are going to talk about: why oxygen was once a deadly poison? How photosynthesis rewired planetary chemistry? Why animals only appear after this metabolic transformation? And how the same power source that enables complexity also drives aging, cancer, and degeneration?
This is the story of what happens when the cycle flips.
00:22 Episode Intro
02:25 Why Oxygen Was a Problem
06:17 Where The Oxygen Came From
08:08 The Flip: From Building to Burning
09:51 Oxygen, Complexity, and the Cambrian World
11:53 Cancer: When Growth Overrules Energy
19:26 Ageing: The Slow Fade of Flux
32:58 The Self as a Metabolic Achievement
35:50 Outro: Returning to Flux
Sources:
Transformer by Nick Lane
Music:
“Meridian” by ODESZA
“Sinking” by SVVN
“Awake” by Tycho
“Xerrox Monophaser 2” by Alva Noto
“Love Lost” by The Temper Trap
“Untravel” by Rival Consoles
“Snow in Gothenburg” by Kasbo
“That Life” by Unknown Mortal Orchestra
“Mishima Closing” by Philip Glass (Multiphonic Saxophone Quartet)
“Who Am I” by Dario Lupo
For any feedback, please contact: [email protected]
View all episodes
By Zong WangYou are listening to Curiosity Curated. I am Zong.
In the previous episode, we ended with a radical claim — that life is not fundamentally about genes, not about information, and not even about survival. Life, at its core, is about flux — the continuous, directed flow of energy and matter through constrained metabolic pathways.
We saw how that flux is organized around cycles, especially the Krebs cycle, how this architecture likely predates genes, cells, and evolution itself, and how it may have emerged spontaneously from planetary geology, driven by energy gradients in deep-sea vents on early Earth.
By the end of that story, life already existed — at least in chemical form. But that life was fragile.Energy-limited. Bound tightly to its environment. And the planet it lived on did not stay the same.
Guided by Nick Lane and his book Transformer, in this episode, we explore what happens next —the moment when life radically expands its energetic budget, when the planet itself is transformed, when complexity becomes possible, and when fragility is permanently introduced.
Specifically, we are going to talk about: why oxygen was once a deadly poison? How photosynthesis rewired planetary chemistry? Why animals only appear after this metabolic transformation? And how the same power source that enables complexity also drives aging, cancer, and degeneration?
This is the story of what happens when the cycle flips.
00:22 Episode Intro
02:25 Why Oxygen Was a Problem
06:17 Where The Oxygen Came From
08:08 The Flip: From Building to Burning
09:51 Oxygen, Complexity, and the Cambrian World
11:53 Cancer: When Growth Overrules Energy
19:26 Ageing: The Slow Fade of Flux
32:58 The Self as a Metabolic Achievement
35:50 Outro: Returning to Flux
Sources:
Transformer by Nick Lane
Music:
“Meridian” by ODESZA
“Sinking” by SVVN
“Awake” by Tycho
“Xerrox Monophaser 2” by Alva Noto
“Love Lost” by The Temper Trap
“Untravel” by Rival Consoles
“Snow in Gothenburg” by Kasbo
“That Life” by Unknown Mortal Orchestra
“Mishima Closing” by Philip Glass (Multiphonic Saxophone Quartet)
“Who Am I” by Dario Lupo
For any feedback, please contact: [email protected]