Shapes, signals, and boundaries: how cells turn physics into information

Shapes, signals, and boundaries: how cells turn physics into information

A flock of birds, an ant colony, heavy traffic on a highway – what do they all have in common? In addition to being things you wouldn’t want to suddenly find yourself in the middle of, they are all examples of self-organising systems – systems that function as a whole without a central controller directing motions.  Our cells and tissues are also self-organising in many ways. Membranes and filaments assemble themselves, proteins and enzymes find…