A new study led by researchers from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) reveals that living matter violates previously known physical principles of symmetry when cellular flows form and break down collective patterns. The research, published in Nature Physics, challenges conventional liquid-crystal physics by showing that moving single-celled bacteria and human respiratory cells spontaneously break mirror symmetry, moving in curved, irreversible spiral paths.

The collaborative study was led by Professors Avraham Be’er and Victor Yashunsky from BGU’s Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research (Sede Boqer Campus) and Department of Physics, alongside Professor Gil Ariel from Bar-Ilan University and Professor D. J. G. Pearce from the University of Geneva.