Living cells are low entropy, nonequilibrium systems that harvest free energy to sense their surroundings, store information, compute, and act amid constant thermal fluctuations. As cross fertilization of ideas from nonequilibrium physics, information theory, and molecular biology increases, it is now timely to ask what are the physical limits on a living system’s ability to process information, and how do cells approach those limits?
In 2027, Research Corporation for Science Advancement will launch a Scialog initiative to catalyze research to better understand living systems as information engines – agents that process information under energetic constraints. The first meeting of Scialog: Information, Computation and Thermodynamics in Biology (ICTB) will be held March 31–April 3, 2027, at Loews Ventana Canyon Resort in Tucson, Arizona.
“Scialog ICTB will convene scientists across multiple disciplines who don’t normally cross paths to ask how cells measure, compute, and respond to their environment, and then turn the resulting conceptual synthesis into a predictive, testable framework to better understand life,” said Richard Wiener, RCSA Senior Program Director, who leads the initiative.
This three-year Scialog series aims to create a dynamic community of about 50 early-career scientists with diverse expertise and perspectives from fields including biology, chemistry, physics, synthetic biology, and AI-driven informatics. By maximizing interactions between researchers with different experiences and approaches, the process is designed to spark creative, novel ideas for transformative research at the nexus of information, computation, and thermodynamics in living systems.
At each conference, participants led by a group of senior facilitators will discuss challenges and bottlenecks, build community around visionary goals, and pitch proposals for seed funding to undertake blue-sky pilot projects.
Scialog, short for “science + dialog,” is a program created by RCSA in 2010 to bring together scientists from a variety of disciplines to focus their collective thinking on issues of global importance.
Discussion at the inaugural meeting is expected to explore questions such as how thermodynamic uncertainty relations (TURs) constrain the trade-offs between speed, precision, and energetic cost in biological processes; how cells function as information engines that convert information into work; what it means for information to carry biological meaning, not just bits; and how ideas from information theory and thermodynamics can help researchers build synthetic cells to serve as physical testbeds for the minimum conditions necessary for life.
For full consideration as a Fellow for the first meeting of Scialog: Information, Computation and Thermodynamics in Biology, submit an application no later than September 15, 2026.
RCSA’s other Scialog meetings include the third year of Neurobiology and Changing Ecosystems in March 2027, the fourth year of Sustainable Minerals, Metals, and Materials in September 2027, the third year of Quantum Matter and Information in October 2027, and the first year of Terrestrial and Extraterrestrial Atmospheres in November 2027.
About Research Corporation for Science Advancement: RCSA is a private foundation that funds basic research in the physical sciences (astronomy, chemistry, physics, and related fields) at colleges and universities in the United States and Canada, and it creates and supports inclusive communities of early career researchers.