One of the most remarkable examples of self-organized structure formation is the development of a complex organism from a single fertilized egg. With the identification of molecules that participate in this process of morphogenesis, attention has now turned to capturing the physical principles that govern the emergence of biological form. What are the physical laws that govern the dynamics and the formation of structure in living matter? Much of the force generation that drives morphogenesis stems from the actomyosin cortical layer of cells just underneath the cell surface, which endows the surface with the ability to generate active stresses and active torques that can drive reshaping. We combine theory and experiment and investigate how the actomyosin cell surface deforms and how it supports chiral rotations, and how these events together participate in chiral morphogenesis and the establishment of a left-right principal body axis in both the nematode worm and the Japanese quail.

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