Matter in motion*

Life on earth began with the single-celled organism. They often embody one of the most basic signatures of life - namely 'purposeful' movement. In learning about and exploring the diverse physical mechanisms and principles that govern how microscopic creatures move, navigate, and interact with their unpredictable world, scientists past and present have been able unravel some of the key evolutionary pathways that led to the emergence of complexity and multicellularity. Conversely, these fundamentally biological questions have also inspired the discovery of new physics and mathematics, and as such were instrumental to shaping our recent understanding of active matter and non-equilibrium systems at microscale. In this talk I will examine and highlight this fascinating duality from both a historical and contemporary perspective.