An avalanche is caused by a chain reaction of events. A loud noise or a change in terrain can have a cascading and devastating impact.

A similar process may happen when living tissues are subject to being pushed or pulled, according to new research published by Northeastern University doctoral student Anh Nguyen and supervised by Northeastern physics professor Max Bi.

As theoretical physicists, Bi and Nguyen use computational modeling and mathematics to understand the mechanical processes that organisms undergo on a cellular level. With this more recent work, they have observed that when subjected to sufficient stress, tissues can “suddenly and dramatically rearrange themselves,” similar to how avalanches are formed in the wild.

This observation challenges the notion that mechanical responses in tissues are entirely localized, suggesting instead that stress redistribution can lead to coordinated rearrangements across larger regions, explains Bi.

“What Anh has found in these computational simulations is that these [cells] are actually talking mechanically, meaning that if rearrangement happens with four cells, the energy that gets released from these four cells is enough to trigger other cells to undergo rearrangement.”

Read more from Northeastern Global News.

Photo by Alyssa Stone/Northeastern University