Polarization: Its increase in politics and community discourse worries and saddens me. But it developmental biology, it's important, and even beautiful. This week, we've made breakthroughs measuring it and understanding how plant cells use it (with surprises!). First up, nuclei.

Andrew Muroyama showed that asymmetrically dividing plant cells have a "cellular compass" that guides the migration of the nucleus away from the center so the cell makes two unequal daughters. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2020.08.100
But then...

The nucleus in one daughter does a 180, and heads right back in the opposite direction. Q1: How? A1: multiple motors and cytoskeletal systems
Q2: Why? A2: We think it's because these are stem cells, and they need to keep track of history, and neighbors. https://news.stanford.edu/2020/09/17/cellular-compass-guides-plant-stem-cell-division/