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Do living cells exploit statistical physics? It’s strange that the question need be asked, as phase transitions and critical phenomena are universal features of condensed matter, and of many-particle systems more broadly. There is no obvious reason why the mere fact of being alive should confer exemption, and indeed phase transitions are seen in biology at the macroscale of communities of organisms, including humans — in flocking behaviour, say, and crowd movements. Yet they have, until recently, been afforded little attentio