A New Science of Death:
Microbial Mortality as a Window into the Architecture and Meaning of Life
We are delighted to announce the launch of this new research project, hosted at the University of Edinburgh, in collaboration with the Universities of Oxford, Durham and Cambridge (UK) and the Center of Theological Inquiry (USA). This project has been awarded generous support from the Templeton World Charity Foundation.
What is our research focus?
Our overall scientific goal is to discover how the way living organisms die has shaped life from its origins all the way to the present-day biosphere. Our vision is for these discoveries to inspire a new perspective, not only amongst scientists and scholars from the arts, humanities and social sciences but also in a wider public, in which death is seen as an integral part rather than an enemy of life. Adopting this new perspective should contribute to human flourishing, e.g., by bringing science and religion together into dialogue about hope, not despite death but in the company of death.
Why does this matter?
The founder of modern histology, Xavier Bichat, defined life in an influential 1802 treatise as 'the collection of functions that resist death'. The idea that life and death are stark opposites remains mainstream today in society at large and in at least some quarters of academe. In this view, organisms are considered as isolated individuals, for whom death is widely thought to be a negative outcome. On the other hand, if individual organismal death is contextualised in its abiotic and biological environment, everything changes: death is immediately seen as an integral component of the collection of processes that, together, constitutes life.
We propose a programme of scientific research on bacterial death within such a 'necroecological' framework, studying how bacteria may be said to 'prepare to die', and how the post mortem 'debris' they leave behind affects the communities in which they once lived. Our findings should contribute towards an eventual transformation of the current mainstream perspective in which death is seen as life's opposite, moving it to a new one in which the way organisms die within their ecosystems constitutes one of the most distinctive characteristics of life.
We believe that such a perspectival transformation based on solid science should feed into the way society thinks about and deals with human death – what the philosopher Robert Kastenbaum calls its 'social death system'. To facilitate this process, we will host activities to begin a dialogue with theologians, philosophers, social scientists and the wider public on the potential implications of an emerging new science of death-in-ecological-context for their disciplines, individually and together.
Background
This project stems from previously published research by some of us, where we discovered that Escherichia coli bacteria makes a protein with a post mortem altruistic function.
This discovery highlights an unexpected post-mortem biochemistry, reshaping our understanding of nutrient recycling. We feel this could potentially reshape our wider understanding of death: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-56761-6
What will we actually do?
This project is scheduled to last three-year, during which we will study how some of the simplest organisms alive today, bacteria, 'prepare to die', and probe the functions fulfilled by the 'debris' they leave behind within the communities in which they once lived. Our results, which we will publish as scientific papers as well as expositions aimed at a more general audience, should strongly reinforce the view that the way organisms die within their ecosystems in fact constitutes one of the most distinctive characteristics of life, and that this has been true from the simplest beginning of life onwards.
To begin the process of discovery-led perspective change, we will build bridges to the arts, humanities and social sciences. In three interdisciplinary workshops, scientists will explore with theologians, philosophers and social scientists how the new results emerging from our scientific programme may impact their disciplines.
Emerging from each workshop will be a published programmatic essay articulating new interdisciplinary research questions. Throughout our programme, we will seek engagement with a wider public through a project website and social media, and through partnership with organisations such as the Institute of Arts and Ideas. The final project conference will end with a public lecture and debate.
This website will evolve as the project develops, so do come back soon to discover how our work has progressed.
Our Funder
This research programme is generously supported by the Templeton World Charity Foundation, whose funding makes possible our interdisciplinary exploration of death, life and their profound interconnection.
Team Members and their key contributions
Project Lead: Prof Cait MacPhee, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Edinburgh
Alongside Prof F. Manolascina, she leads research on understanding how the uncovered death-related properties of single cells translate to complex multicellular communities, called biofilms, as these organised states of bacteria likely represent a first step in life's evolution towards multicellularity.
Project Lead: Prof Filippo Manolascina, School of Engineering, University of Edinburgh
Trained as a control engineer, his expertise in dynamical-systems modelling aligns naturally with process-philosophical perspectives on life, a theme he has previously engaged with through sustained reading.
Dr Aidan Brown, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Edinburgh
Aidan will lead our research on the Bioenergetics of Death: seeking to quantify and understand how much energy bacteria expend to die, and probe how natural selection has operated to ‘tune’ the energetic cost of death.
Prof Jane Calvert, School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh
She is a longstanding member of Edinburgh’s Centre for Engineering Biology and its predecessor the Centre for Systems Biology, interacting with scientists to explore the social implications of these emerging disciplines.
Dr Jean-Christophe Denis, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Edinburgh
He will ensure that relevant groups of publics are engaged with our work, can contribute to it and shape it, as well as ensuring that our findings are communicated and disseminated to a wide audience.
Prof Teuta Pilizota, Department of Physics, University of Cambridge
She leads research on near-death states: how cells ‘prepare to die’. She will focus on quantitatively studying “near-death states” and elucidating what controls the fate of near-death bacterial cells: whether they end up surviving or dying.
Prof Martin Cann, Department of Biosciences, University of Durham
He will investigate the molecular biology of post-mortem bacterial gene products. The focus will be on identifying which constituent biomolecules are reused, but also the biological processes that have evolved to function post-mortem.
Dr Frederick Simmons, Center of Theological Inquiry
He contributes theological and philosophical analysis of cutting-edge science, enriching our inquiry into the societal implications of microbial death.
Prof Stuart West, Department of Zoology, Oxford University
Stuart will frame our work into an evolutionary context, testing the hypothesis that post-mortem functions can be favoured when they provide a benefit to neighbouring living cells who are likely to be close relatives of the dead cell.