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SYMMETRY BREAKING. “Phase transitions cause breaks in symmetry and result in different structural properties of many materials. These events can be exploited to program information into inert materials so that they can perform work in an orderly fashion.” (Lovely summary of phase transitions). https://lnkd.in/dmRQvzT View in LinkedIn

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SO ENDS this first of two weekends on plant body plans. Plants may as well have come from Mars biologically speaking, for they differ from animals so markedly. And although it is unfortunate that the animal maze term ‘plant intelligence’ has been used to describe their ability to predict, anticipate, and react to circumstances, which has caused an uproar in the Luddite community, these creatures without neurons clearly have the ability to cogitate in sophisticated ways. View in LinkedIn

MAJOR RADIATION COMPLETED. "By late Mesoproterozoic or early Neoproterozoic time, the major radiation events distinguishing modern-day eukaryote lineages had already taken place." http://aob.oxfordjournals.org/content/85/4/411.full.pdf View in LinkedIn

MASSIVE LATERAL GENE TRANSFERS. "This early phase in plant evolution, which involved extensive lateral gene transfer among pro- and eukaryotic unicellular organisms, was followed by one characterized by increased genetic isolation and divergence." http://aob.oxfordjournals.org/content/85/4/411.full.pdf View in LinkedIn

MASSIVE ENDOSYMBIOSIS. "Rather than constituting a single clade that can be traced back to a single last common ancestor, plants (i.e. eukaryotic photoautotrophs) have multiple evolutionary origins presumably as a consequence of primary endosymbiotic events, giving rise to lineages like the Chlorophyta, or as a result of secondary endosymbiotic events, giving rise to others like the euglenids and chromists." http://aob.oxfordjournals.org/content/85/4/411.full.pdf View in LinkedIn

MORE PROGRAMMABLE PROPERTIES of materials continue now, properties that can be exploited by natural bio-machines or human bio-engineers in order to asymmetrically control the flow of electrons, photons, thermal, mechanical, or other drivers of energy to do work. View in LinkedIn

BIOLOGICAL SYSTEMS illustrate many examples of structures able to change their physical properties (shape, density, moduli, conductivity, optical properties, etc), and as such qualifies as programmable material. This is the interface between Claytronics and synthetic biology. View in LinkedIn

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