This is the final episode of our 2025-26 series on ‘mechanisms in reproductive biology’. Over the course of twelve fascinating conversations, I’ve spoken with researchers fom various disciplines who study sperm, eggs, or embryos through the lenses of molecular biology, evolution, and physics. My goal was to learn from researchers who study the same systems, but approach the problem from completely different starting assumptions about how biology works in the first place. Additionally, I had an opportunity in the last three episodes of the season to pause a bit, and think deeply about what the concept of mechanism means, and how our common preconceptions have historically influenced the practice of biological science. If you want to check out those previous episodes, there is a full list in the show notes.    

Today, I have the pleasure of chatting with Dr. Rob Phillips, of the California Institute of Technology. Rob’s research focuses on understanding an impressive range of biological phenomena from molecules to ecosystems. Some of his recent work, which we’ll discuss in this episode, is focused on understanding how seemingly distinct biological processes such as translation of proteins on the ribosome or the foraging behavior of ant colonies actually have something in common- they tend to achieve consistent outcomes while also being relatively insensitive to their starting configurations- behavior which, I might add, is difficult or impossible to predict from molecular mechanistic descriptions alone.  

Rob’s many wonderful books, such as ‘Cell Biology by the Numbers, and Physical Biology of the Cell, had a huge influence on me during my formative years as a biologist. It was a real honor to get to have this conversation with him, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.  

To learn more about SSR, go to: SSR.org

Link to John Gerhart and Marc Kirschner's book mentioned in the episode.

Link to Dr. Phillips' webpage.

Link to the paper 'Biological Processes as Exploratory Dynamics' mentioned in the episode.

There is also a preprint of the article available here.