Physicists use computer simulation to investigate aging in living glassy systems

Aging is a process that affects not only living beings. Many materials, like plastics and glasses, also age--i.e. they change slowly over time as their particles try to pack better--and there are already computer models to describe this. Biological materials, such as living tissue, can show similar behavior to glasses except that the particles are actual cells or bacteria which have their own propulsion. Researchers at the University of Göttingen have now used computer simulations to explore th...