On Growth And Force

摘要

Almost a century ago, zoologist D'Arcy Thompson wrote, "Cell and tissue, shell and bone, leaf and flower, are so many portions of matter, and it is in obedience to the laws of physics that their particles have been moved, moulded and conformed" (1). The current preeminence of the molecular genetic approach to biology, in which living systems are conceptualized as networks of interacting genes and proteins, may have obscured this inevitable link between physics and biology in the mind of scientists and the public alike. Nonetheless, there are clear signs that a revival is under way. Moreover, and perhaps fittingly, the clearest signs of this revival come from developmental biology, the field that Thompson so profoundly influenced. A striking example of this trend is found on page 1650 of this issue, where Hamant et al. (2) show that mechanical stress plays a key role in the development of plant organs.