120 | Jeremy England on Biology, Thermodynamics, and the Bible

<p>Erwin Schrödinger’s famous book&nbsp;<em>What Is Life?</em>&nbsp;highlighted the connections between physics, and thermodynamics in particular, and the nature of living beings. But the exact connections between living organisms and the flow of heat and entropy remains a topic of ongoing research. Jeremy England is a leader in this field, deriving connections between thermodynamic relations and the processes of life. He is also an ordained rabbi who finds resonances between modern science and passages in the Hebrew Bible. We talk about it all, from entropy fluctuation theorems to how scientists should approach religion.</p><p><em>Support Mindscape on&nbsp;</em><a href="https://www.patreon.com/seanmcarroll" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Patreon</em></a><em>.</em></p><p>Jeremy England received his Ph.D. in physics from Stanford University. He is currently Senior Director in the Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning group at GlaxoSmithKline. He has been a Rhodes scholar, a Hertz fellow, and was named one of&nbsp;<em>Forbes</em>‘s&nbsp;“30 Under 30 Rising Stars of Science.” His new book is&nbsp;<a href="https://www.basicbooks.com/titles/jeremy-england/every-life-is-on-fire/9781541699007/?utm_expid=.OyywKgKNQfKo0ZgN1WBZtg.0&amp;utm_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Every Life is on Fire: How Thermodynamics Explains the Origins of Living Things.</em></a></p><ul><li><a href="https://www.englandlab.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Web site</a></li><li><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=UnBLlzEAAAAJ&amp;hl=en#d=gs_hdr_drw" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Google Scholar publications</a></li><li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10cVVHKCRWw" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Talk on Non-Equilibrium Statistical Mechanics and Life</a></li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Jeremy-England/e/B086R3PJ3B/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Amazon author page</a></li><li><a href="http