Abstract Serial homology, i.e., homology between repetitive structures in the same individual organism, is a debated concept evolutionary developmental biology. The central question interpretation of “sameness” context body. This essay provides synthetic analysis main issues involved debate, connecting conceptual problems with current experimental research. It argued that serial not all-or-noth...

Topologically ordered phases of matter display a number unique characteristics, including ground states that can be interpreted as patterns closed strings. In this paper, we consider the problem detecting and distinguishing strings in Ising spin configurations sampled from classical $\mathbb{Z}_2$ gauge theory. We address using framework persistent homology, which computes size frequency genera...