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Self-assembly is a ubiquitous process in synthetic and biological systems, broadly defined as the spontaneous organization of multiple subunits (e.g. macromolecules, particles) into ordered multi-unit structures. The vast majority of…
Mixtures of particles that interact through phoretic effects are known to aggregate if they belong to species that exhibit attractive self-interactions. We study self-organization in a model metabolic cycle composed of three species of…
We study the elasticity of cross-linked networks of thermally fluctuating stiff polymers. As compared to their purely mechanical counterparts, it is shown that these thermal networks have a qualitatively different elastic response. By…
Like the letters in the alphabet forming words, reusing components of a heterogeneous mixture is an efficient strategy for assembling a large number of target structures. Examples range from synthetic DNA origami to proteins self-assembling…
A hallmark of living systems is the ability to employ a common set of versatile building blocks that can self-organize into a multitude of different structures, in a way that can be controlled with minimal cost. This capability can only be…
Metabolism is a fascinating cell machinery underlying life and disease and genome-scale reconstructions provide us with a captivating view of its complexity. However, deciphering the relationship between metabolic structure and function…
Equilibrium self-assembly and conventional materials processing techniques fall far short of mimicking dynamic self-actuating processes that are commonplace throughout biology. To bridge the gap between living and synthetic matter, we study…
The hallmark feature of polymorphic systems is their ability to assemble into many possible structures at the same thermodynamic state. Designer polymorphic materials can in principle be engineered via programmable self-assembly, but the…
Hierarchically structured natural materials possess functionalities unattainable to the same components organized or mixed in simpler ways. For instance, the bones and teeth of mammals are far stronger and more durable than the mineral…
Experiments have reached a monumental capacity for designing and synthesizing microscopic particles for self-assembly, making it possible to precisely control particle concentrations, shapes, and interactions. However, more physical insight…
Networks are fundamental for our understanding of complex systems. Interactions between individual nodes in networks generate network motifs - small recurrent patterns that can be considered the network's building-block components,…
Network glasses are the physical prototype for many self-organized systems, ranging from proteins to computer science. Conventional theories of gases, liquids, and crystals do not account for the strongly material-selective character of the…
When two periodic potentials compete in materials, one may adopt the other, which straightforwardly generates topological defects. Of particular interest are domain walls in charge-, dipole-, and spin-ordered systems, which govern…
We suggest an underlying mechanism that governs the growth of a network of concepts, a complex network that reflects the connections between different scientific concepts based on their co-occurrences in publications. To this end, we…
From the complex motions of robots to the oxygen binding of hemoglobin, the function of many mechanical systems depends on large, coordinated movements of their components. Such movements arise from a network of physical interactions in the…
Evolution in time-varying environments naturally leads to adaptable biological systems that can easily switch functionalities. Advances in the synthesis of environmentally-responsive materials therefore open up the possibility of creating a…
Collective organization in physical, biophysical, and biological systems often emerges from many weak, local interactions, yet the resulting global structures display striking regularities and apparent limits in diversity. Existing…
The possibility for proteins to aggregate in different superstructures, i.e. large-scale polymorphism, has been widely observed, but an understanding of the physico-chemical mechanisms behind it is still out of reach. Here we present a…
Controlling the topology of structures self-assembled from a set of heterogeneous building blocks is highly desirable for many applications, but is poorly understood theoretically. Here we show that the thermodynamic theory of self-assembly…
We describe a simple adaptive network of coupled chaotic maps. The network reaches a stationary state (frozen topology) for all values of the coupling parameter, although the dynamics of the maps at the nodes of the network can be…