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Biological organisms are adaptive, able to function in unpredictably changing environments. Drawing on recent nonequilibrium physics, we show that in adaptation, fitness has two components parameterized by observable coordinates: a static…
Many complex systems satisfy a set of constraints on their degrees of freedom, and at the same time, they are able to work and adapt to different conditions. Here, we describe the emergence of this ability in a simplified model in which the…
The purpose of this review is to analyze the physics at play in particle resuspension in order to bring insights into the rich complexity of this common but challenging concern. Following the more-is-different vision, this is performed by…
A variety of nonlinear models of biological systems generate complex chaotic behaviors that contrast with biological homeostasis, the observation that many biological systems prove remarkably robust in the face of changing external or…
Urban growth sometimes leads to rigid infrastructure that struggles to adapt to changing demand. This paper introduces a novel approach, aiming to enable cities to evolve and respond more effectively to such dynamic demand. It identifies…
Traditional top-down robotic design often lacks the adaptability needed to handle real-world complexities, prompting the need for more flexible approaches. Therefore, this study introduces a novel cellular plasticity model tailored for…
Understanding realistic complex systems requires confronting significant conceptual, theoretical and experimental limitations rooted in the persistence of views that originated in the mechanics of simple moving bodies. We define the…
We study the dynamical response of a circularly-driven rigid body, focusing on the description of intrinsic rotational behavior (reverse rotations). The model system we address is integrable but nontrivial, allowing for qualitative and…
A formulation of Continuum Mechanics within the context of General Relativity is presented that allows for the incorporation of certain types of anelastic material behaviour, such as viscoelasticity and plasticity. The approach is based on…
How can we build agents that keep learning from experience, quickly and efficiently, after their initial training? Here we take inspiration from the main mechanism of learning in biological brains: synaptic plasticity, carefully tuned by…
Global constraints proved themselves to be an efficient tool for modelling and solving large-scale real-life combinatorial problems. They encapsulate a set of binary constraints and using global reasoning about this set they filter the…
Protein evolution underpins life, and understanding its behavior as a system is of great importance. However, our current models of protein evolution are arguably too simplistic to allow quantitative interpretation and prediction of…
Colloidal gels constitute an important class of materials found in many contexts and with a wide range of applications. Yet as matter far from equilibrium, gels exhibit a variety of time-dependent behaviours, which can be perplexing, such…
To analyze the evolutionary emergence of structural complexity in physical processes we introduce a general, but tractable, model of objects that interact to produce new objects. Since the objects--\emph{$epsilon$-machines}--have well…
Human learning is a complex phenomenon requiring flexibility to adapt existing brain function and precision in selecting new neurophysiological activities to drive desired behavior. These two attributes -- flexibility and selection -- must…
Scaling laws illuminate Nature's fundamental biological principles and guide bioinspired materials and structural designs. In simple cases they are based on the fundamental principle that all laws of nature remain unchanged (i.e.,…
The chapter presents some new approaches to describing the collective behavior of complex systems of mathematical biology based on the evolution equations of observables such as open systems. This representation of kinetic evolution has…
The purpose of this work is to use active particles to study the effect of facilitation on supercooled liquids. To this end we investigate the behavior of a model supercooled liquid doped with intermittently active and intermittently slowed…
The ubiquity of modules in biological networks may result from an evolutionary benefit of a modular organization. For instance, modularity may increase the rate of adaptive evolution, because modules can be easily combined into new…
We present a simple yet generic model for the behavior of a system of many surface-attached flexible polymers with rigid side chains. Beyond its potential application in describing the dynamics of the extracellular matrix of mammalian…