How soft materials control harder ones: routes to bioorganization

Ordered structures are remarkably common, even without direct human guidance or direction. The ordering can be at the atomic scale or on the macroscopic scale or at the mesoscale. The term 'self-organization' is often used, but this description is facile, giving no hint as to the range or variety of mechanisms. Ordering can occur in circumstances commonly associated with disorder, as in the irradiation of metals to high doses; it can also occur when soft, flexible materials organize structures of harder, rigid structures. My review attempts to analyse some of these widely varying behaviours, both to seek evidence of common underlying principles and to assess how organization might be controlled, and with what level of accuracy