Universal Self-Assembly and a Curious Distribution Model
//Assembly Universally//
Science, a study into the intricate workings of the world around us has been an enigma that has piqued human’s curiosity since the very beginning. Concepts that have evolved over time have been an interesting part of scientific history. Hundreds of years ago, information was not in abundance but scientists have often shared information and been able to identify common patterns that might have been useful for a direction of research in another area. Cell self-assembly is yet another aspect of science that allow understanding and even manipulation of complex structures. There have been a number of journals around cell development and this time, researchers in Turkey were able to discover a model that would allow for a universal approach to cell assembly.
//Probability and Models//
After reading into the basics of cell assembly, the benefit to establishing this connection lies in the nature of a reversible process. Scientists would be able to model assembly in a universal capacity, not just cells. The researchers gained inspiration after a mathematics lecture, yet another example of crossing disciplines that contribute value and direction in other fields. Having read a brief summary around this universal approach, the statistical models mentioned caught my attention. The Tracy-Widom distribution is a law that has been used in a number of systems across different disciplines. Accurate modelling is still predictive and the probability distribution is one that has been observed to hold accuracy against other approaches.
//Destribution Application//
The fascinating feature of the Tracy-Widom distribution is that it can be applied universally. It’s not quite a one formula fits all but researchers and modellers have been able to apply this theory to real world applications. Trawling through various comments and journals, the distribution was initially thought to discern the largest eigenvalues of a completely random matrix, for engineers this is useful when dealing with degrees of freedom in vibration analysis. But over time, the universal features and seemingly coherent anomalies have revealed this distribution to be a little more than initially thought. It connects two main classes of correlation of strong and weak, a unique distribution that has once again proved its relevance in a scientific scope. I came across an interesting thesis exploring the application of the Tracy-Widom system in the application of automated discovery of communities in a network. Yet again, a universal approach that could be applied social, bio and web based networks (linked in sources below). Perhaps the researchers on this current growing social network may find some value in this distribution and I look forward to seeing how the discovery of self-assembly continues to evolve in the scientific space.
Sources
https://phys.org/news/2020-04-scientists-uncover-principles-universal-self-assembly.html
http://web.mit.edu/8.334/www/grades/projects/projects17/SamBauman.pdf
https://arxiv.org/abs/1506.00089