Morphogenesis: eternal truth or ephemeral beauty


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EDITORIAL

Morphogenesis: eternal truth or ephemeral beauty
Guojun Sheng1* and Natasza A. Kurpios2*

1
International Research Center for Medical Sciences (IRCMS), Kumamoto University, Kumamoto, Japan

2
College of Veterinary Medicine, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA

The construction and destruction of the sand mandala (A) in
Tibetan Buddhism symbolizes both the beauty of form and the
fleeting nature of its existence. D’Arcy Thompson, in the second
edition of his seminal 1917 book “On Growth and Form”, used
the analogy of a milk splash (B) to illustrate such contrasting per-
fection and impermanence in biology. According to Thompson,
morphology and morphogenesis, while transitory and complex,
can be analyzed through mathematical understanding and tech-
nological innovations. Such insight has championed the field of
developmental biology in the century since “On Growth and
Form” was first published. Today, we now wield a sophisticated
array of analytical tools and paradigms, enabling descriptive, vis-
ual and quantitative studies with a precision that Thompson and
his peers would not have dreamed of.

Have we gotten closer to unraveling the universal logic of mor-
phogenesis, like the metaphysical truth in Buddhism or mathe-
matical beauty in Thompson’s book? It is probably still too early

to tell. We are more certain, however, that to understand such
logic, if a unifying rule set even exists, will require us to combine
multiple tools and model systems, and more importantly to
embrace a multi-faceted and organismal approach. In this special
issue, we present a collection of such reviews and research
articles to give Developmental Dynamics readers an updated view
of animal morphogenesis. We hope to offer a platform for debate,
to address the growing sentiment in modern morphogenetic syn-
thesis that biological forms must be studied and dissected in the
context of their higher-order function. The sand mandala, with
its millions of colorful and carefully-arranged grains, conveys a
religious truth that is beyond its genesis. But biology is not reli-
gion, and animal morphogenesis may merely be a manifestation
of functional contingency, beholden only to the logic of chance
and natural selection. Between us and our favorite model sys-
tems, there may be no eternal truth but ephemeral beauty. We
should be prepared for either outcome.

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Fig. 1. A: Kalachakra sand mandala by Losang Samten, 2012; B: Milk drop by Harold Edgerton, 1936. Reproduced with permission

*Correspondence to: sheng@kumamoto-u.ac.jp or natasza.kurpios@cornell.
edu

Article is online at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/dvdy.
24381/abstract
VC 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

DEVELOPMENTAL DYNAMICS 245:189, 2016
DOI: 10.1002/DVDY.24381

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