The physics of glass formation: from liquids to living cells

The liquid-to-glass transition remains one of the deepest unsolved problems in condensed matter science. In this talk, I will first give a general introduction to the topic, and then present a novel first-principles theory that can shed new light on the physics of glass formation. I will demonstrate that the theory can be successfully applied both to ordinary glass-forming materials and to living cells that become more glass-like as the density increases. Ultimately, this work can help to elucidate the fundamental link between structure and dynamics in disordered matter, and may even find applications in medical diagnostics to distinguish healthy from pathological cell tissue