title: The Material Basis of Life.
abstract: The manner by which the organization and behaviors of cells arise from the activities of their constituent molecules remains poorly understood. Approaches from the physical sciences for studying collective properties may help with this difficult problem, but they must be adapted to account for the specific attributes of biological molecules.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, FAS Center for Systems Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. Electronic address: dan_needleman@harvard.edu.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Needleman
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003585:Cell Biology / Q000639:trends*; D003599:Cytoskeleton / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D019369:Life; D008954:Models, Biological
keywords: active matter; cytoskeleton; non-equilibrium; self-organization