Looping Networks

Olivier Devauchelle (Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris)

Flow in a laboratory aquifer. Stripes of blue dye reveal the travel of water through the unsaturated (quasi-vertical lines) and saturated zones. The outlet, on the left, stands for a river flowing towards the viewer. Dashed yellow lines: theoretical streamlines. Solid yellow line: water table.

Image credit: E. Lajeunesse, O. Devauchelle, J. Douçot & V. Jules (2024)

Niccolò Ragno (University of Trento)

A closed loop in Val Ridanna, Italy.

Sharon R Lubkin (North Carolina State University)

Branching morphogenesis creates a complementary looping network 3D imaging of embryonic mouse lung shows the end buds of the primary airway branches (white) surrounded by a multiscale vascular network (red).

Image credit: Alon Lazarus

Claire Lagesse (Université de Franche-Comté)

Paul Villoutreix (INSERM)

The making of a tissue; Biological tissues are classic examples of looping networks of interacting cells. However, they do not appear out of nowhere and have a specific history. It is therefore interesting to consider how a tissue is made. At the single cell level, this question boils down to understanding how cell proliferation, cell differentiation and spatial organization are coordinated to produce the right number of cells with the right identity in the right place.

Carl Modes (Center for Systems Biology Dresden)

Ensnarled vascular network in liver tissue

Tomasz Szawełło (University of Warsaw)

Andrea Perna (IMT School for Advanced Studies)

Snapshot of the internal structure of a termite nest (Coptotermes lacteus). Note the scaffold-like structure with branching and reconnecting structures.

Andrea Perna (IMT School for Advanced Studies)

Black and white representation of the galleries excavated by ants (yellow meadow ant Lasius flavus) over a few hours within a thin layer of clay. The columns represent replicates of the experiment at different environmental temperature; rows correspond to different stages of the digging process (when the excavated area reached approximately 50 cm2 and 100 cm2, respectively).

Camille Le Scao (Laboratoire Matière et Systèmes Complexes)

Antoni Wrzos (University of Warsaw)

Endothelial cells on a matrix forming a network

Image credit: Katarzyna Rojek

Ignacio Bordeu (Universidad de Chile)

Clonal dispersion during branching morphogenesis of the mouse salivary gland. The image depicts a reconstructed ductal tree of an embryonic murine salivary gland lobe (white lines) showing clones resulting from the labeling of individual cells at the init

Przemyslaw Prusinkiewicz (University of Calgary)

Simulated development of the vasculature in the flower head of Bellis perennis.

Image credit: Owens et al., New Phytologist, https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.19571, 2024

Maciej Lisicki (University of Warsaw)

The delta of the Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers at the mouth of the Indian Ocean consists of channels forming loops that surround hundreds of islands.

Image credit: Google Earth

Maciej Lisicki (University of Warsaw)

The mouth of a river from Wax Lake in Louisiana, USA, into the Atlantic Ocean takes a form similar to that of a tree, in which the main stream divides into smaller branches.

Image credit: Google Earth

Timothy W. Secomb (University of Arizona)

Simulated angiogenesis in the cerebral cortex. The microvessel network shown is generated by a theoretical model that includes angiogenesis, structural adaptation of diameters and pruning. The structure is periodic in a hexagonal pattern.

Eugenia Corvera Poiré (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México)

Toshiyuki Nakagaki (Hokkaido University)

Photograph of plasmodium of true slime mold, Physarum polycephalum. The fan-shaped area in the center of the photo is the progressive front. The area near the front is sheet-like or densely packed capillary veins, and the veins are integrated and become thicker toward the posterior part of the body.

C. Kevin Boyce (Stanford University)

Maciej Kot (independent researcher)

Annemiek Cornelissen (Laboratoire Matière et Systèmes Complexes)

Rhizostoma pulmo (Barrel jellyfish); Living specimen with stained stomach, with stain diffusion into the adradial canals after 1 min from the injection.

Image credit: Avian M, Mancini L, Voltolini M, Bonnet D, Dreossi D, Macaluso V, et al. A novel endocast technique providing a 3D quantitative analysis of the gastrovascular system in Rhizostoma pulmo: An unexpected through-gut in cnidaria. PLOS ONE. 2022;17(8):e0272023

Annemiek Cornelissen (Laboratoire Matière et Systèmes Complexes)

Cyanae Capilalta Specimen from Gruinard Bay, Ross-shire ca.140 mm in diameter, September 1959. The manubrium, gonads and marginal tentacles have been removed to show the gastrovascular canal system.

Image credit: Russell FS. The Medusae of the British Isles. Vol.II - pelagic scyphozoa with a supplement to the firts volume on hydromedusae: Cambridge at the university press; 1970

Giulio Facchini (Laboratoire Matière et Systèmes Complexes)

Snapshot of the growing stereom within the test of a sea-urchin juvenile, from a confocal imaging session. Blue and yellow regions correspond to two successive incubation in different markers that stains for bio-mineralised calcium.