How do growing bacterial colonies get their shapes? While colony morphogenesis is well
studied in two dimensions, many bacteria grow as large colonies in three-dimensional (3D) …

Experimental evolution with microbial model systems has transformed our understanding of
the basic rules underlying ecology and evolution. Experiments leveraging evolution as a …

The diversity of multicellular organisms is, in large part, due to the fact that multicellularity
has independently evolved many times. Nonetheless, multicellular organisms all share a …

Complex disordered matter is of central importance to a wide range of disciplines, from
bacterial colonies and embryonic tissues in biology to foams and granular media in …

In this paper we explore the relevance and integration of system theory and thermodynamics
in terms of the Earth system. It is proposed that together, these fields explain the evolution …

While early multicellular lineages necessarily started out as relatively simple groups of cells,
little is known about how they became Darwinian entities capable of sustained multicellular …

Many organisms exhibit branching morphologies that twist around each other and become
entangled. Entanglement occurs when different objects interlock with each other, creating …

The evolution of complex multicellularity opened paths to increased morphological diversity
and organizational novelty. This transition involved three processes: cells remained …

The evolution of multicellular life spurred evolutionary radiations, fundamentally changing
many of Earth's ecosystems. Yet little is known about how early steps in the evolution of …

Cell division without cell separation produces multicellular clusters in budding yeast. Two
fundamental characteristics of these clusters are their size (the number of cells per cluster) …