Smart cells amaze
During embryonic development, cells must migrate through long, complex mazes in the developing embryo to reach their proper locations. Puzzled at how cells could achieve such a feat of navigation, a team of scientists tested the ability of cells from slime mould and mice to solve mazes in a lab.
They discovered that by generating self-guiding chemical gradients, the cells were able to accurately solve the correct paths through the mazes—even remarkably complex ones. The cells were able to accurately decide which way to go at maze junctions to avoid dead-end paths—even around corners—in a way that seemed “intuitively impossible.”
Such stunning navigational abilities of single cells point to God’s amazing design.
- Tweedy, L. and 6 others, Seeing around corners: cells solve mazes and respond at a distance using attractant breakdown, Science 369(6507):eaay9792, 2020.
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