https://www.sciencealert.com/life-b...wirling-over-microscopic-bodies-study-reveals
Life Begins With Mesmerising Waves Swirling Over Microscopic Bodies, Study Reveals
PETER DOCKRILL
27 MARCH 2020
As life starts, the crazy whirl begins. That's not poetry or philosophy. It's science.
Once an egg is fertilised, billions of proteins ripple out across its surface, unleashing a dizzying cascade of swirling patterns. These spiralling arcs aren't for show, though; the phenomenon may be pretty, but it's also a fundamental part of nascent cell division.
"The egg is a huge cell, and these proteins have to work together to find its centre, so that the cell knows where to divide and fold, many times over, to form an organism," says physicist Nikta Fakhri from MIT.
"Without these proteins making waves, there would be no cell division."
In a new study, Fakhri and fellow researchers examined what these whirling waves look like up close, examining their propagation patterns on the cell membranes of starfish eggs (Patiria miniata).
Beyond grasping the biology of starfish oocytes, the researchers wanted to see how these patterns might compare to similar wave phenomena in other kinds of systems – examples of what physicists call topological defects.
As the researchers explain in a new paper, these kinds of turbulence-like behaviours can be seen in both physical and biological matter, in scales that range between the cosmological and the infinitesimal: from swirling vortices in planetary atmospheres to bio-electrical signalling in the heart and brain.
Yet while the similarities may be abundant, the nature of their sameness remains mysterious, theoretically speaking.
more at link....
The findings are reported in Nature Physics.
Life Begins With Mesmerising Waves Swirling Over Microscopic Bodies, Study Reveals
PETER DOCKRILL
27 MARCH 2020
As life starts, the crazy whirl begins. That's not poetry or philosophy. It's science.
Once an egg is fertilised, billions of proteins ripple out across its surface, unleashing a dizzying cascade of swirling patterns. These spiralling arcs aren't for show, though; the phenomenon may be pretty, but it's also a fundamental part of nascent cell division.
"The egg is a huge cell, and these proteins have to work together to find its centre, so that the cell knows where to divide and fold, many times over, to form an organism," says physicist Nikta Fakhri from MIT.
"Without these proteins making waves, there would be no cell division."
In a new study, Fakhri and fellow researchers examined what these whirling waves look like up close, examining their propagation patterns on the cell membranes of starfish eggs (Patiria miniata).
Beyond grasping the biology of starfish oocytes, the researchers wanted to see how these patterns might compare to similar wave phenomena in other kinds of systems – examples of what physicists call topological defects.
As the researchers explain in a new paper, these kinds of turbulence-like behaviours can be seen in both physical and biological matter, in scales that range between the cosmological and the infinitesimal: from swirling vortices in planetary atmospheres to bio-electrical signalling in the heart and brain.
Yet while the similarities may be abundant, the nature of their sameness remains mysterious, theoretically speaking.
more at link....
The findings are reported in Nature Physics.