Biological material is constantly consuming energy to make things move, organize information such as DNA, or divide cells for reproduction; but building a fundamental theory which encompasses all of the features of biological matter is no easy task. The burgeoning field of active matter aims to understand these complex biological phenomena through physics. Active matter research has seen rapid growth over the last decade, but linking existing active matter theories with experimental tests has not been possible until recently. An explosion of biologically based and synthetic experimental systems as well as more detailed theories have arrived in recent years, and some of these foundational experiments have been conducted here at Brandeis University. Recently, a Nature News Feature (The Physics of Life) has highlighted work from Zvonimir Dogic’s lab in an article about the field of active matter and the physics which endeavors to understand biology.
