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    PHYSICS OF GROWING SYSTEMS
    & PLANT BEHAVIOUR

    MEROZ LAB

    WHAT WE'RE INTO

    DYNAMICS OF PLANT BEHAVIOUR Organisms thrive in a harsh and fluctuating environment thanks to a variety of fundamental processes such as decision-making, adaptation, learning and collective behavior. These processes are based on the ability to compare environmental stimuli, either in time via memory, or in space by collectively sharing sensory information between organisms. Our lab aims to provide a mechanistic understanding of these phenomena, suggesting plant responses as a model system. We adopt a statistical physics approach, inferring underlying microscopic processes from observed macroscopic responses, and carry out experiments in house. 

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    PHYSICS OF GROWING SYSTEMS A variety of biological systems are not motile, but sessile in nature, relying on movement resulting from continuous growth in the direction of environmental stimuli. For example, in their search for nutrients, plant roots and fungal hyphae change their morphology by growing differentially, and neuronal axons grow towards a chemical signal. The irreversible nature of growth, together with the inherent coupling between space and time, calls for a new physical description.

    OUR TOOLBOX

    EXPERIMENTS

    We observe complex macroscopic responses of plants to diverse stimuli 

    STATISTICAL PHYSICS

    We infer microscopic stochastic processes from macroscopic responses

    MATHEMATICAL MODELING

    We use minimal modeling and numerical simulations to study observations

    RESEARCH AT A GLANCE

    "Ask not what physics can do for biology - ask what biology can do for physics"   //  Ulam

    FUNDING

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    FIND US

    The lab is opening up this fall, looking for curious and enthusiastic students!

    Britannia Building, Rooms 516+517

    School of Plant Science and Food Security

    Tel Aviv University

    Tel Aviv, Israel

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    email:             jazz at tauex.tau.ac.il

    office phone: +972-3-6409846

    lab phone:     +972-3-6409845

            twitter:   @MerozLab

    solo chi non mangia non fa briciole