Algorithms, love and evolution

The Greeks, or rather, one in particular, thought that everything was made of tiny, indivisible, building blocks called atomos. Different shape and size of atoms determined why things are bitter or white etc. He was surprisingly proven (almost) correct 2000 years later. Rather than needles and smooth atoms though, a lot is fruit-shaped. But how do we know that Democritus was not entirely correct?

When I get asked what my PhD-research is about, I almost always need to explain what my research *field* is: logic. What is logic? In this talk I will aim to answer that simple question, and show how the field of logic is perhaps the most fascinating and important field of science you have never heard of! I offer a brief history of logic, show modern applications and present current resereach.

We explain our research by formulating a life problem. What characteristics in a partner guarantees a happy life? One can date as many people as possible to get to know what one's psyche wants. However, time and resources are limited. We cannot date all the people on the planet. How can we get a good insight about what we want given limited resources? Multilevel Data Assimilation helps us with it.

From sunflowers to starfish, symmetry appears everywhere in biology. This isn’t just true for body plans – the beautiful molecular machines keeping our cells alive are also strikingly symmetric. But why? Does evolution have a built-in preference for symmetry?

We think so, and I'd like to tell you why, bringing together computer science, physics and biology to describe a new theory across life!