Harvard Medical School, Department of Cell Biology, Boston, MA, USA

The need for data validation and accessibility has never been greater than it is today. We are inundated with information from a multitude of resources, but how can we easily evaluate the accuracy of that data? In the past, the peer review process provided this and was often run by publishers.

Chemical and electrical signals are well known to contribute to the growth and development of an organism; recently, there has been an emerging focus on another cue that can inform cellular development: physical force. Cells are pushed, pulled, and squeezed as they undergo biological processes such as cell division, migration, and morphogenetic events, and exciting recent work is identifying the role such forces play in governing cell function.