Somas and the New Physics of Life
Andy Schaefer 4-21-2018
Recent advances in biophysics reveal to us the hidden movements and organizing principles of life as understood from the third person perspective of science. I will explore the transition from non-living active matter to living cells, organisms and populations. We will address the question: when do the properties we identify as Soma arise in matter? Active matter systems are composed of energy-consuming constituent components that drive the system to behave in very complex ways. These active materials have characteristic properties that are dramatically different from the everyday materials that we interact with such as plastics, metals, or fluids such as water and oil. We will learn that endowing the fundamental unit of a material with the ability to consume energy, exert forces and move, can result in a material that has properties of self-motility and self-healing that adapts to the world. I invite the audience to apprehend the beauty of our hidden parts through the presentation of videos that will showcase the dynamic biophysical and cell biological concepts relevant to understanding Somas. We will also interact with models and materials to encourage discussion and insight. We will see that the “new” physics of life validates Thomas Hanna’s concept of Somas as self-moving, self-experiencing, and self-regulating Active-matter systems.
Andy Schaefer, PhD, PTA, CSE, obtained a PhD in Neurosciences from Case Western Reserve University in OH and worked as a Research Scientist at the Departments of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology and of Mechanical Engineering at Yale University. He spent 25 years conducting original research on cellular mechanics underlying motility and nerve regeneration, publishing numerous peer-reviewed articles. Throughout those years, he enjoyed training and collaborating with distinguished medical clinicians, neurosurgeons, biologists, physicists, and engineers. Together they applied innovative technologies to visualize the inner life of cells. In 2011, he personally experienced the healing power of Hanna Somatic Education and realized he wanted to integrate his third-person scientific understanding of life with his embodied first-person experience as a living Soma. He is now an Allied Somatics Practitioner (2013), trained at the Somatic Systems Institute in MA. He currently integrates Clinical Somatic Education into a physical therapy practice at Farmington Valley Physical Therapy & Sport Medicine, and Soma Movement Studio in CT. He enjoys synthesizing knowledge of neurophysiology and biophysics and sharing it to empower people to live more fully.