October 3, 2016 by Patrick Ammerman

A new study by Eleni Katifori, an assistant professor in the Department of Physics & Astronomy of the University of Pennsylvania School of Arts & Sciences, and Henrik Ronellenfitsch, a postdoc in her lab, described how a simple rule guides the development of the vasculature in both animals and plants.

They used mathematical modeling to show that this rule, known as adaptive feedback, can produce the most efficient possible network of veins for any organism.