Oxford Biologist: Health is NOT in your Genes | Denis Noble

Oxford physiologist Denis Noble reveals why your genes are not the blueprint for life, why evolution itself works nothing like the selfish gene made us believe, and why the failed promise to cure disease by reading our DNA points to a completely different understanding of health and aging!

Denis Noble built the first working mathematical model of the heart in 1960 and is one of the founding figures of systems biology. He is a professor at Oxford with a career spent studying how living systems work, and he now argues that the genome is a database the living cell draws on, not the program running the show.

He explains:

◼️Why the Human Genome Project never delivered the cures we were promised

◼️Why your DNA cannot actually predict most disease

◼️The CD analogy: why studying genes tells you nothing about the music of life

◼️His long-running clash with Richard Dawkins and the selfish gene

◼️Why purpose and intelligence run all the way down, from your immune system to a predator hunting its prey

Episode Show Notes: https://livelongerworld.com/p/denisnoble

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 The Selfish Gene Is Just Not Correct

00:21 What Are Functional Networks, Really?

02:09 Genes Build the Muscles, But Don't Move Them

09:42 Your Genes Are a CD, Not the CD Player

12:11 Can Your DNA Predict Your Disease?

14:23 If Not Genes, How Do We Find Cures?

18:18 Then Does Gene Therapy Even Work?

21:32 Why Scientists Can't Let the Paradigm Go

24:08 What Darwin and Lamarck Actually Said

31:42 Do Animals Choose? Darwin Thought So

38:07 The Finite Monkeys Problem With Evolution

45:15 Inheritance Without Changing Your DNA

49:31 How Do You Actually Reproduce Denis Noble?

50:49 Is the Selfish Gene Right From Evolution's View?

54:45 Answering Jerry Coyne: Isn't DNA the Recipe?

59:51 Who Wrote the Genetic Code?

1:08:22 The Problem of Form: You Can't Get It From Genes

1:12:01 The Mitochondria Accident That Made Complex Life

1:13:05 Why Big Life Needs a Heart

1:17:54 Why Mars Is a Pipe Dream

1:18:45 Mike Levin and the Alignment of the Body

1:21:29 What Does Denis Disagree With Mike Levin On

1:24:59 The Biggest Taboo: Purpose in Biology

1:27:35 Is Consciousness Just Expensive Energy?

1:28:55 What Your Immune System Knows

1:42:01 How Birds at Altitude Prove the Point

1:44:29 Final Thoughts: Life Is More Interesting Than You Think

DENIS NOBLE:

Website: https://www.denisnoble.com/

Books: https://www.denisnoble.com/buy/

AASTHA, LIVE LONGER WORLD:

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Full list of health products I use: https://www.healthstacked.com/aasthajs

CAMERON, RICCI FLOW NUTRITION:

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PREVIOUS PODCAST WITH DENIS NOBLE & MICHAEL LEVIN on Biology's Functional Networks, NOT Genes, are key for Longevity: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_Ak-1rbbWg&t=3823s