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When a floating body is internally or externally vibrated, its self-generated wavefield can lead to steady propulsion along the interface. In this article, we review several related and recently discovered systems that leverage this…

Fluid Dynamics · Physics 2025-09-09 Daniel M. Harris , Jack-William Barotta

Chiral active matter comprises particles which can self-propel and self-rotate. Examples range from sperm cells and bacteria near walls to asymmetric colloids and pea-shaped Quincke rollers. In this perspective article we focus on recent…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2022-10-12 Benno Liebchen , Demian Levis

We study a model of self propelled particles exhibiting run and tumble dynamics on lattice. This non-Brownian diffusion is characterised by a random walk with a finite persistence length between changes of direction, and is inspired by the…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2015-03-17 A. G. Thompson , J. Tailleur , M. E. Cates , R. A. Blythe

Hypothesis: Bacterial contamination of surfaces poses a major threat to public health. Designing effective antibacterial or self-cleaning surfaces requires understanding how bacteria-laden droplets interact with solid substrates and how…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2025-10-29 Sirshendu Misra , Sudip Shyam , Priyam Chakraborty , Sushanta K. Mitra

Single flagellated bacteria are ubiquitous in nature. They exhibit various swimming modes using their flagella to explore complex surroundings such as soil and porous polymer networks. Some single-flagellated bacteria swim with two distinct…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2024-11-20 H. Gidituri , M. Ellero , F. Balboa Usabiaga

Self-propelled micromotors can efficiently convert ambient energy into mechanical motion, which is of great interest for its potential biomedical applications in delivering therapeutics noninvasively. However, navigating these micromotors…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2024-06-25 Binglin Zeng , Jialin Lai , Jingyuan Chen , Yaxin Huang , Changjin Wu , Chao Huang , Qingxin Guo , Xiaofeng Li , Shuai Li , Jinyao Tang

To swim through a viscous fluid, a flagellated bacterium must overcome the fluid drag on its body by rotating a flagellum or a bundle of multiple flagella. Because the drag increases with the size of bacteria, it is expected theoretically…

Active nematics are the nonequilibrium analog of passive liquid crystals in which anisotropic units consume free energy to drive emergent behavior. Similar to liquid crystal (LC) molecules in displays, ordering and dynamics in active…

Quantitative Methods · Quantitative Biology 2022-10-10 Japinder Nijjer , Mrityunjay Kothari , Changhao Li , Thomas Henzel , Qiuting Zhang , Jung-Shen B. Tai , Shuang Zhou , Sulin Zhang , Tal Cohen , Jing Yan

Bacterial motility, and in particular repulsion or attraction towards specific chemicals, has been a subject of investigation for over 100 years, resulting in detailed understanding of bacterial chemotaxis and the corresponding sensory…

Biological Physics · Physics 2022-06-08 Jerko Rosko , Vincent Martinez , Wilson Poon , Teuta Pilizota

Microorganisms are able to overcome the thermal randomness of their surroundings by harvesting energy to navigate in viscous fluid environments. In a similar manner, synthetic colloidal microswimmers are capable of mimicking complex…

Integration of active matter in larger micro-devices can provide an embedded source of propulsion and lead to self-actuated micromachining systems that do not rely on any external power or control apparatus. Here we demonstrate that Janus…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2025-09-29 C. Maggi , J. Simmchen , F. Saglimbeni , J Katuri , M. Dipalo , F. De Angelis , S. Sánchez , R. Di Leonardo

We demonstrate that collective turbulent-like motion in a bacterial bath can power and steer directed transport of mesoscopic carriers through the suspension. In our experiments and simulations, a microwedge-like "bulldozer" draws energy…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2014-04-21 Andreas Kaiser , Anton Peshkov , Andrey Sokolov , Borge ten Hagen , Hartmut Löwen , Igor S. Aranson

Bacterial cellulose is an important class of biomaterials which can be grown in well-controlled laboratory and industrial conditions. The cellulose structure is affected by several biological, chemical and environmental factors, including…

Biological Physics · Physics 2021-07-28 Sung-Ha Hong , Jia Yang , Mahdi Davoodianidalik , Horst Punzmann , Michael Shats , Hua Xia

Active crystals are highly ordered structures that emerge from the self-organization of motile objects, and have been widely studied in synthetic and bacterial active matter. Whether collective crystallization phenomena can occur in groups…

Cell walls define a cell shape in bacteria. They are rigid to resist large internal pressures, but remarkably plastic to adapt to a wide range of external forces and geometric constraints. Currently, it is unknown how bacteria maintain…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2014-05-01 Ariel Amir , Farinaz Babaeipour , Dustin B. McIntosh , David R. Nelson , Suckjoon Jun

The intricate wobbling motion of flagellated bacteria, characterized by the periodic precession of the cell body, is a determinant factor in their motility and navigation within complex fluid environments. While well-studied in quiescent…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2026-01-26 Wei Feng , Fanglong Dang , Hao Luo , Alan C. H. Tsang , Yanan Liu , Guangyin Jing

Magnetotactic bacteria moving on circular orbits form hydrodynamically bound states. When close to a surface and with the tilting of the field in a direction close to the perpendicular to this surface these swarms move perpendicularly to…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2017-07-11 K. Bente , G. Kitenbergs , D. Kriman , K. Erglis , M. Belovs , D. Faivre , A. Cebers

Artificial micro heat engines are prototypical models to explore and elucidate the mechanisms of energy transduction in a regime that is dominated by fluctuations [1-2]. Micro heat engines realized hitherto mimicked their macroscopic…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2016-12-21 Sudeesh Krishnamurthy , Subho Ghosh , Dipankar Chatterji , Rajesh Ganapathy , A. K. Sood

Machines are designed, assembled, and programmed to convert power into predetermined dynamics and functions. In contrast, living systems such as interacting cells and animal groups self-organize, synchronize, and perform complex tasks…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2026-04-09 Romane Braun , Alexis Poncet , Alexandre Morin , Denis Bartolo

A flagellated bacterium navigates fluid environments by rotating its helical flagellar bundle. The wobbling of the bacterial body significantly influences its swimming behavior. To quantify the three underlying motions--precession,…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2026-05-29 Jinglei Hu , Chen Gui , Mingxin Mao , Pu Feng , Yurui Liu , Xiangjun Gong , Gerhard Gompper