Active Particle Methods toward Modelling Living Systems
A special issue of Symmetry (ISSN 2073-8994). This special issue belongs to the section "Life Sciences".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 January 2025 | Viewed by 3853
Special Issue Editor
2. Professor Emeritus, Polytechnic University of Torino, Torino, Italy
Interests: kinetic theory; cancer modelling; social systems; crowd dynamics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The modelling and simulation of living systems is one of the great scientific challenges of this century. It is not an easy task, as the tools generally used to describe the dynamics of inert matter rely on physical theories, which are missing in the case of living systems.
This conceptual difficulty was already posed by Immanuel Kant (1724—1804) who proposed the following definition: Living Systems: Special structures organized and with the ability to chase a purpose.
Analogous concepts were pragmatically related to modern research by Nobel Laureate Lee Hartwell (born 1939), who bears in mind that the mathematical approach to the description of the dynamics of inert matter cannot be straightforwardly applied to living systems: Biological systems are very different from the physical or chemical systems of the inanimate matter. In fact, although living systems obey the laws of physics and chemistry, the notion of function or purpose differentiate biology from other natural sciences.
Indeed, Erwin Schrodinger (1887—1961) observed that Living systems have the ability to extract entropy to keep their own at low levels.
This Special Issue aims to present scientific articles devoted to the modelling and simulation of large systems of interacting living entities by active particle methods. We encourage a multiscale vision and interpretation of mathematical models of living systems, from the micro-scale to collective behaviors, and organized networks. Applications can be addressed to the study of systems where human behaviors and heterogeneity have a significant influence on collective dynamics. Specifically, the following scientific fields will be considered: social dynamics, collective learning, biology, epidemiology, virology, human crowds, and artificial intelligence.
The study of new concepts of symmetry and asymmetry is planned, looking ahead to the possible future of the science of living systems by using advanced tools of mathematics, physics, and computer science.
Prof. Dr. Nicola Bellomo
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
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