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Traffic Phenomena in Biology: From Molecular Motors to Organisms

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Book cover Traffic and Granular Flow’05

Summary

Traffic-like collective movements are observed at almost all levels of biological systems. Molecular motor proteins like, for example, kinesin and dynein, which are the vehicles of almost all intra-cellular transport in eukayotic cells, some-times encounter traffic jam that manifests as a disease of the organism. Similarly, traffic jam of collagenase MMP-1, which moves on the collagen fibrils of the extracellular matrix of vertebrates, has also been observed in recent experiments. Traffic-like movements of social insects like ants and termites on trails are, perhaps, more familiar in our everyday life. Experimental, theoretical and computational investigations in the last few years have led to a deeper understanding of the generic or common physical principles involved in these phenomena. In particular, some of the methods of non-equilibrium statistical mechanics, pioneered almost a hundred years ago by Einstein, Langevin and others, turned out to be powerful theoretical tools for quantitative analysis of models of these traffic-like collective phenomena as these systems are intrinsically far from equilibrium. In this review we critically examine the current status of our understanding, expose the limitations of the existing methods, mention open challenging questions and speculate on the possible future directions of research in this interdisciplinary area where physics meets not only chemistry and biology but also (nano-)technology.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, 208016, India

    Debashish Chowdhury

  2. Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität zu Köln, D-50937, Köln, Germany

    Andreas Schadschneider

  3. Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Faculty of Engineering, University of Tokyo, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8656, Japan

    Katsuhiro Nishinari

Authors
  1. Debashish Chowdhury
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  2. Andreas Schadschneider
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  3. Katsuhiro Nishinari
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität zu Köln, Zülpicher Str. 77, 50937, Köln, Germany

    Andreas Schadschneider

  2. Campus Virchow Klinikum Centrum für Unfall- und Wiederherstellungschirurgie, Charité, Augustenburger Platz 1, 13353, Berlin, Germany

    Thorsten Pöschel

  3. Institut für Verkehrsforschung, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR), Rutherfordstr. 2, 12489, Berlin, Germany

    Reinhart Kühne

  4. Physik von Transport und Verkehr, Universität Duisburg-Essen, Lotharstr. 1, 47048, Duisburg, Germany

    Michael Schreckenberg

  5. Theoretische Physik, Universität Duisburg-Essen, Lotharstr. 1, 47048, Duisburg, Germany

    Dietrich E. Wolf

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Chowdhury, D., Schadschneider, A., Nishinari, K. (2007). Traffic Phenomena in Biology: From Molecular Motors to Organisms. In: Schadschneider, A., Pöschel, T., Kühne, R., Schreckenberg, M., Wolf, D.E. (eds) Traffic and Granular Flow’05. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-47641-2_18

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