(PhysOrg.com) -- Sticky is good. A University of California, San Diego bioengineer is the first author on an article in the journal Science that provides insights on the “stickiness of life.” The big idea is that cells, tissues and organisms hailing from all limbs of the tree of life respond to stimuli using basic biological “modules.” For example, the researchers outlined similar strategies across biology for fulfilling the tasks of “sticking together” (cell-cell interactions), “sticking to their surroundings” (cell-extracellular matrix [ECM] interactions), and responding to forces.