The cover image, by Chris Fields and Michael Levin, is based on Overview Multiscale memory and bioelectric error correction in the cytoplasm–cytoskeleton‐membrane system, DOI: 10.1002/wsbm.1410.

The information determining large‐scale anatomical features of an organism is encoded in a variety of physical processes and not entirely in the genome. Dissociations between genome‐default anatomical states and actual growth and form can be observed in model systems such as planaria as pattern memories, including those stored in bioelectric networks among somatic cell groups, can be re‐written to result in stable production of animals with different target morphologies after each regeneration event. Planaria, which reproduce by fission, starkly reveal the gap between genome and anatomy, as they maintain perfect anatomical fidelity even as they accumulate mutations over millions of years of somatic inheritance.

Small molecule signaling and regulation can be harnessed for the control of bacterial cellular therapeutics.