Patterns and flows: from turbulence to morphogenesis

Add to your list(s) Download to your calendar using vCal

• Vincenzo Vitelli (University of Chicago)
• Wednesday 05 July 2023, 12:00-12:30
• Seminar Room 1, Newton Institute.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact nobody.

SPLW01 - Building a bridge between non-equilibrium statistical physics and biology

Fully developed turbulence is a universal and scale-invariant chaotic state characterized by an energy cascade from large to small scales where it is eventually arrested by dissipation. In this talk, we discuss how to harness these seemingly structureless turbulent cascades to generate patterns. Pattern formation entails a process of wavelength selection which, in its simplest incarnation, can be traced to the linear instability of a homogeneous state. The mechanism we propose here is fully non-linear. It is triggered by a non-dissipative arrest of turbulent cascades: energy piles up at an intermediate scale, which is neither the system size nor the smallest scales at which energy is dissipated. The tunable wavelength of these cascade-induced patterns can be set by a non-dissipative transport coefficient called odd or gyro viscosity ubiquitous in chiral systems ranging from plasma to bio-active media. Cascade-induced patterns could also occur in natural systems such as atmospheric or astrophysical flows as well as the pulverization of objects or the coagulation of droplets where mass rather than energy cascades. Finally, we discuss how spatial patterns in the distribution of cytoskeletal proteins trigger morphogenetic flows in fruit fly embryos. Using a suite of machine learning techniques we discover a closed-loop dynamical system that controls fruit fly morphogenesis during gastrulation and validate it with a mutant analysis.

This talk is part of the Isaac Newton Institute Seminar Series series.

This talk is included in these lists:

• All CMS events
• Featured lists
• INI info aggregator
• Isaac Newton Institute Seminar Series
• School of Physical Sciences
• Seminar Room 1, Newton Institute
• bld31

Note that ex-directory lists are not shown.