Fernanda Sánchez-Puig , Octavio Zapata , Omar K. Pineda , Gerardo Iñiguez, Carlos Gershenson 

The dynamics of many complex systems can be classified as ordered, chaotic, or critical. Order offers stability and robustness, while chaos allows for change and adaptability. Criticality, then, is often seen as a balance required by living systems at different scales. In classical models, however, criticality is only found near phase transitions, restricting the parameter space (and thus the likelihood) of critical dynamics, as most parameters yield “undesirable” solutions. Here we show that this limitation is due to the homogeneity built-in these models, i.e., all elements sharing parameter values. By exploring heterogeneous versions of archetypal models in physics and computer science, we observe critical dynamics in a broader range of parameters, and thus could be more common than previously thought.

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Steven Strogatz, Sara Walker, Julia M. Yeomans, Corina Tarnita, Elsa Arcaute, Manlio De Domenico, Oriol Artime & Kwang-Il Goh 
Nature Reviews Physics (2022)

August 1972 saw the publication of Philip Anderson’s essay ‘More is different’. In it, he crystallized the idea of emergence, arguing that “at each level of complexity entirely new properties appear” — that is, although, for example, chemistry is subject to the laws of physics, we cannot infer the field of chemistry from our knowledge of physics. Fifty years on from this landmark publication, eight scientists describe the most interesting phenomena that emerge in their fields.

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Biological Robots: Perspectives on an Emerging Interdisciplinary Field
D. Blackiston, S. Kriegman, J. Bongard, M. Levin
Advances in science and engineering often reveal the limitations of classical approaches initially used to understand, predict, and control phenomena. With progress, conceptual categories must often be re-evaluated to better track recently discovered invariants across disciplines. It is essential to refine frameworks and resolve conflicting boundaries between disciplines such that they better facilitate, not restrict, experimental approaches and capabilities. In this essay, we discuss issues at the intersection of developmental biology, computer science, and robotics. In the context of biological robots, we explore changes across concepts and previously distinct fields that are driven by recent advances in materials, information, and life sciences. Herein, each author provides their own perspective on the subject, framed by their own disciplinary training. We argue that as with computation, certain aspects of developmental biology and robotics are not tied to specific materials; rather, the consilience of these fields can help to shed light on issues of multi-scale control, self-assembly, and relationships between form and function. We hope new fields can emerge as boundaries arising from technological limitations are overcome, furthering practical applications from regenerative medicine to useful synthetic living machines.

Read the full article at: arxiv.org