Active Matter and Sustainability: from Plankton to Traffic Flow

Abstract:

The most important question of our time is whether, and how, we will be able to run our planet sustainably. Answering this question requires a deep understanding of the earth system, a vast non-equilibrium system which abounds with different active-matter susbsystems. Two of them are within the focus of the talk: the plankton, which represents the bottleneck of solar energy entering the marine biosphere, and traffic flow, which is among the strongest sources of greenhouse emissions. Despite the complexity and disparity of the two systems, basic statistical physics methodology may pave the way towards understanding their overall behaviour.