From the Desk of Caspar
Yesterday, I was in the audience listening to the brilliant Professor Nick Lane, Professor of Evolutionary Biochemistry at UCL.
The topic: “What is a feeling?”
It’s such an interesting question to get beneath the surface of how we operate as human beings. The research in this space continues to reveal new insights that I believe have important implications for how we operate as individuals and how we work in teams, both in work and at home.
What’s especially interesting is the rate at which this field is developing - Professor Lane is right at the forefront of this and has been described by Bill Gates as 'One of my favourite science writers’.
What was shared yesterday is the idea that mitochondria (the cells that generate most of the chemical energy needed to power the cell's biochemical reactions), should generate electromagnetic fields.
And that electromagnetic fields generated by the mitochondria are fundamental to consciousness.
The conclusion being that consciousness, the state of being aware of and responsive to one’s surroundings is driven by electromagnetic fields.
So, consciousness, that ability to be aware, and to respond actually happens at a cellular level. That implies that cells have feelings and awareness.
Nick Lane dedicated one chapter to consciousness in his book, “Life Ascending: The Ten Great Inventions of Evolution”
…it was the most controversial! It’s a subject that creates hot debate!
So, what do we do with any of this?
These insights go to the heart of what I think of as the human operating system.
How we respond to situations, to people and what can we understand so that we can take better decisions.
I think we need to take in ideas from all fields, to be curious, to learn and to find better ways to think and act.
It’s interesting to note that Nick Lane’s direction of inquiry was triggered by something completely left field, something he wasn’t even aware of.
It was when a renowned anaesthetist, a doctor, got in touch regarding the impact on consciousness of being anaesthetised that Professor Lane went in a different direction with his thinking.
Be open, be curious, be thirsty for knowledge, and remember what you think you know, may have a different footing now based on new research coming through.