Explaining embryonic development of multicellular organisms requires insight into complex interactions between genetic regulation and physical, generic mechanisms at multiple scales. As more physicists move into developmental biology, we need to be aware of the “cultural” differences between...

We study the center of mass motion of single endodermal Hydra cells in two kinds of cellular aggregates: endodermal and ectodermal. The mean square displacement displays anomalous super-diffusion with 〈x2〉∼tα where α1. The velocity distribution function is non-Gaussian and fits well the...

Because the extended or cellular large-Q Potts model (CPM) captures effectively the global features of tissue rearrangement experiments, including cell sorting and tissue engulfment, it has become a common technique for cell level simulation of tissues. However, it omits three key elements of...