Related papers: Possible mechanisms for initiating macroscopic lef…
Development combines three basic processes asymmetric --- cell division, signaling and gene regulation --- in a multitude of ways to create an overwhelming diversity of multicellular life-forms. Here, we attempt to chart this diversity…
A large neutrino asymmetry is an interesting possibility for cosmology, which can have significant observable consequences for nucleosynthesis and the cosmic microwave background. However, although it is a possibility, there is no obvious…
Among the mechanisms which successfully explain the generation of the Baryon Asymmetry of the Universe, Leptogenesis through right-handed neutrino decays is especially attractive. Unfortunately, this theory suffers from a lack of…
To model the morphogenesis of rod-shaped bacterial micro-colony, several individual-based models have been proposed in the biophysical literature. When studying the shape of micro-colonies, most models present interaction forces such as…
We propose a general multiscale approach for the mechanical behavior of three-dimensional networks of macromolecules undergoing strain-induced unfolding. Starting from a (statistically based) energetic analysis of the macromolecule…
Swimming is ubiquitous in nature and crucial for the survival of a wide range of organisms. The physics of swimming at the viscosity-dominated microscale and inertia-dominated macroscale is well studied. However, in between lies a…
Rod-like bacteria maintain their cylindrical shapes with remarkable precision during growth. However, they are also capable to adapt their shapes to external forces and constraints, for example by growing into narrow or curved confinements.…
The emergence of a body axis is a fundamental step in the development of multicellular organisms. In simple systems such as $\textit{Hydra}$, growing evidence suggests that mechanical forces generated by collective cellular activity play a…
Life systems are complex and hierarchical, with diverse components at different scales, yet they sustain themselves, grow, and evolve over time. How can a theory of such complex biological states be developed? Here we note that for a…
The dynamics of molecular collisions in a macroscopic body are encoded by the parameter Thermodynamic entropy - a statistical measure of the number of molecular configurations that correspond to a given macrostate. Directionality in the…
Cells are strongly out-of-equilibrium systems driven by continuous energy supply. They carry out many vital functions requiring active transport of various ingredients and organelles, some being small, others being large. The cytoskeleton,…
Many cellular processes require a polarization axis which generally initially emerges as an inhomogeneous distribution of molecular markers in the cell. We present a simple analytical model of a general mechanism of cell polarization taking…
Understanding how biomechanical reorganization governs key biological processes, such as morphogenesis and development, requires predictive insights into stress distributions and cellular behavior. While traditional approaches focused on…
Biological and robotic grasp and manipulation are undeniably similar at the level of mechanical task performance. However, their underlying fundamental biological vs. engineering mechanisms are, by definition, dramatically different and can…
We use the early Large Hadron Collider data to set the lower limit on the scale of Left-Right symmetry, by searching for the right-handed charged gauge boson $W_R$ via the final state with two leptons and two jets, for 33/pb integrated…
A new model for biological growth is introduced that couples the geometry of an organism (or part of the organism) to the flow and deposition of material. The model has three dynamical variables (a) a Riemann metric tensor for the geometry,…
Several physical mechanisms have been proposed to explain allostery in proteins. They differ by the number of internal states that they assume a protein to occupy, leaving open the question of what controls the emergence of these distinct…
Locomotion is essential for living cells. It enables bacteria and algae to explore space for food, cancer to spread, and immune system to fight infections. Motile cells display trajectories of intriguing complexity, from regular (e.g.…
In higher organisms, all cells share the same genome, but every cell expresses only a limited and specific set of genes that defines the cell type. During cell division, not only the genome, but also the cell type is inherited by the…
Mechanical signaling plays a key role in biological processes like embryo development and cancer growth. One prominent way to probe mechanical properties of tissues is to study their response to externally applied forces. Using a…