Place a single cell on a circular micropattern, a dinner-plate-sized arena at the cellular scale, and something strange happens. The cell doesn’t wander randomly. It starts tracing a petal-shaped loop, over and over, circling clockwise or counterclockwise with the determination of a figure skater. About half go clockwise, half counterclockwise. Until they don’t.
If there is one thing that keeps climate scientists, ecologists, and central bankers up at night, it is the tipping point — that invisible threshold where a system quietly accumulating stress suddenly lurches into a completely different state. Coral reefs bleach overnight. Financial markets crash without warning. A stable democracy tips toward authoritarianism. And for decades, the best tool we had for seeing these catastrophes coming was, frankly, not much better than squinting at a graph and hoping the line looked scary enough.