\cite{Zhao2005}
\cite{Straight2005}
\cite{Zihni2016}
\cite{Arnold2017}
\cite{Chen2014}
\cite{Zaidel_Bar_2015}
\cite{Alt_2017}
what is conveyed or represented by a particular arrangement or sequence of things.
All life on this planet stemmed from a single cell. While the complexity of a single cell is immense imagine 37 trillion cells, stuck together, performing specialized tasks, organized into tissues, organs, and the complexity of a human being become apparent \cite{Bianconi2013}. How can such complexity originate from a single cell? There are so many steps involved, the cell has to divide, cells have to adhere to one another, cells need to differentiate to perform specialized tasks, cells need to produce mechanical force to bend and fold tissues to make the organs, and the organs systems have to coordinate to maintain the life of the organism. If every animal starts as a single cell then the first cell must contains of the information needed to build an organism. How can something so tiny contain so much information? The simple and yet complex, unique and yet consistently six pointed geometry of a snowflake provides a hint. 
The intricate structure of a snowflake emerges from the hexagonal geometry of frozen water molecules (Fig. 1.1 A). As a solid, water molecules form a crystal lattice as a result of the physically bent molecular geometry of water and the chemical properties where oxygen is is more negative and hydrogen is more positive  (Fig. 1.1 A). From simple geometry and chemical properties a beautiful, complex, and unique snowflake is born. A tiny water molecule, just a mere 2.5 Angstroms, contains all of the information necessary to build a snowflake. Knowing this, it should not be difficult to understand how a cell which is made up of trillions of molecules can provide the framework for something as simultaneously simple, complex, and unique as a human being.
In our cells the sequence of nucleotide contained in the double helix of DNA is the master regulator of information storage (Fig 1.1 B). The genes in our DNA code for different types of proteins (Fig 1.1 B). Some of these proteins make other structures, such as lipids and chains of sugars (Fig 1.1 B). It isn't often thought of this way but the physical and chemical properties of proteins, lipids, and sugars store information for the cell as well, similar to how the structure of a water molecule stores information for the snowflake. The main difference between a living cell and a snowflake is that the cell built of more complex and less rigid material. This allows the cells to take on many different shapes generated and maintained by proteins that produce mechanical force all while remaining plastic enough to respond to stimuli, change, and adapt itself overtime. Cells achieve    this dynamic plasticity not only the expression of certain genes that determine the type and shape of a cell but also the specific local accumulation and activation of the proteins that dictate the immense variety an adaptability of cellular architectures seen (Fig 1.1 B). If cellular changes always required the expression of new genes, this would be too slow, other responses are stored in the structure of the proteins themselves. One fascinating examples of this is how proteins can respond to mechanical cues. This allows cells to sense a forces and produce an almost instantaneous response. The focus of my thesis work is on this, how cells respond to mechanical inputs and can adjust their mechanical properties to make up an effective tissue.