Related papers: Directed aging, memory and Nature's greed
The evolutionary balance between innate and learned behaviors is highly intricate, and different organisms have found different solutions to this problem. We hypothesize that the emergence and exact form of learning behaviors is naturally…
DNA and other biopolymers are being investigated as new computing substrates and alternative to silicon-based digital computers. However, the established top-down design of biomolecular interaction networks remains challenging and does not…
At any moment in time, evolution is faced with a formidable challenge: refining the already highly optimised design of biological species, a feat accomplished through all preceding generations. In such a scenario, the impact of random…
Directed evolution is an iterative laboratory process of designing proteins with improved function by iteratively synthesizing new protein variants and evaluating their desired property with expensive and time-consuming biochemical…
Aging is thought to be a consequence of intrinsic breakdowns in how genetic information is processed. But mounting experimental evidence suggests that aging can be slowed. To help resolve this mystery, I derive a mortality equation which…
Ordered mechanical systems typically have one or only a few stable rest configurations, and hence are not considered useful for encoding memory. Multistable and history-dependent responses usually emerge from quenched disorder, for example…
Granular materials densify under repeated mechanical perturbations, a nonequilibrium dynamics that underlies many natural and industrial processes. Because granular relaxation is governed by frictional contacts and energy dissipation, this…
Disordered systems subject to a fluctuating environment can self-organize into a complex history-dependent response, retaining a memory of the driving. In sheared amorphous solids, self-organization is established by the emergence of a…
Starting from the idea that the underlying mechanisms driving the observable processes in nature are algorithmic, we exemplify this in two ways: nature works as a computing machine and thus the processes running on it optimize themselves in…
Biological evolution of a population is governed by the fitness landscape, which is a map from genotype to fitness. However, a fitness landscape depends on the organisms environment, and evolution in changing environments is still poorly…
The dynamics of strongly disordered systems becomes extremely slow or glassy at low temperatures, which results in a characteristic aging scenario. This means that the outcome of measurements strongly depends on the history of the system…
We study the creep behavior of a disordered brittle material (concrete) under successive loading steps, using acoustic emission and ultrasonic sensing to track internal damage. The primary creep rate is observed to follow a (Omori-type)…
Biological systems offer a great many examples of how sophisticated, highly adapted behavior can emerge from training. Here we discuss how training might be used to impart similarly adaptive properties in physical matter. As a special form…
Within simulations of molecules deposited on a surface we show that neuroevolutionary learning can design particles and time-dependent protocols to promote self-assembly, without input from physical concepts such as thermal equilibrium or…
The relaxation dynamics of many disordered systems, such as structural glasses, proteins, granular materials or spin glasses, is not completely frozen even at very low temperatures. This residual motion leads to a change of the properties…
A collection of thin structures buckle, bend, and bump into each-other when confined. This contact can lead to the formation of patterns: hair will self-organize in curls; DNA strands will layer into cell nuclei; paper, when crumpled, will…
Understanding why we age is a long-lived open problem in evolutionary biology. Aging is prejudicial to the individual and evolutionary forces should prevent it, but many species show signs of senescence as individuals age. Here, I will…
Cells move differently on substrates with different elasticities. In particular, the persistence time of their motion is higher on stiffer substrates. We show that this behavior will result in a net transport of cells directed up a…
We consider self-organization and memory formation in a mesoscopic model of an amorphous solid subject to a random shear strain protocol confined to a strain range $\pm \varepsilon_{\rm max}$. We develop proper read-out protocols to show…
The capacity to adapt can greatly influence the success of systems that need to compensate for damaged parts, learn how to achieve robust performance in new environments, or exploit novel opportunities that originate from new technological…