Vincenzo Vitelli, Professor in Physics, University of Chicago

How patterns are formed or destroyed out of equilibrium is a long standing question whose implications range from morphogenesis to chemical reactions. In its simplest manifestation pattern formation entails a process of wavelength selection: patterns typically arise from the linear instability of a homogeneous state. In this talk, we discuss a distinct and fully non-linear scenario in which pattern formation is triggered instead by a non-dissipative arrest of turbulent cascades. The characteristic wavelength of these turbulence-induced patterns is set by a non-dissipative transport coefficient called odd viscosity common in chiral systems such as plasmas, bio-active matter and quantum fluids. Next, we discuss how spatial patterns in the distribution of cytoskeletal proteins trigger morphogenetic flows in fruit fly embryos. Using a suite of machine learning techniques we discover a closed-loop dynamical system that controls fruit fly morphogenesis during gastrulation and validate it with a mutant analysis.