Show notes
What links a Möbius strip, brain folds and termite mounds? The answer is Harvard University’s L. Mahadevan, whose career has been devoted to using mathematics and physics to explore the form and function of common phenomena. Mahadevan, or Maha to his friends and colleagues, has long been fascinated by questions one wouldn’t normally ask — from the equilibrium shape of inert objects like a Möbius strip, to the complex factors that drive biological systems l…
Highlighted moments
To me, the big moral is that notions like side and edge and surface are not as simple or intuitive as we thought they were.
“Your lungs have a lot of surface. Your gut has a lot of surface. It's all folded up. Your brain also has a lot of surface, and it's folded up. And each one of them is doing something different.”
“the mound works like a lung. So during the day, the air inside the walls heats up, and therefore it starts to rise.”
“we cannot separate the living from the non-living anymore.”
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