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Are biological systems poised at criticality?

2 Pith papers cite this work. Polarity classification is still indexing.

2 Pith papers citing it
abstract

Many of life's most fascinating phenomena emerge from interactions among many elements--many amino acids determine the structure of a single protein, many genes determine the fate of a cell, many neurons are involved in shaping our thoughts and memories. Physicists have long hoped that these collective behaviors could be described using the ideas and methods of statistical mechanics. In the past few years, new, larger scale experiments have made it possible to construct statistical mechanics models of biological systems directly from real data. We review the surprising successes of this "inverse" approach, using examples form families of proteins, networks of neurons, and flocks of birds. Remarkably, in all these cases the models that emerge from the data are poised at a very special point in their parameter space--a critical point. This suggests there may be some deeper theoretical principle behind the behavior of these diverse systems.

years

2026 1 2025 1

verdicts

UNVERDICTED 2

representative citing papers

Emergent Macro-Criticality from Micro-Critical Agents

nlin.AO · 2026-05-03 · unverdicted · novelty 6.0

In this multi-agent light-switching model, macroscopic critical-like dynamics arise from slightly subcritical microscopic reservoir dynamics interacting through specific network connectivities, rather than from critical individuals alone.

citing papers explorer

Showing 2 of 2 citing papers.

  • Emergent Macro-Criticality from Micro-Critical Agents nlin.AO · 2026-05-03 · unverdicted · none · ref 10

    In this multi-agent light-switching model, macroscopic critical-like dynamics arise from slightly subcritical microscopic reservoir dynamics interacting through specific network connectivities, rather than from critical individuals alone.

  • Oscillatory dynamics between language usage and economic activity physics.soc-ph · 2025-07-11 · unverdicted · none · ref 36 · internal anchor

    Word usage cycles in languages track and interact with macroeconomic rhythms through a feedback process near a Hopf bifurcation.