Related papers: Ants as Fluids: Physics-Inspired Biology
Active colloids are microscopic particles, which self-propel through viscous fluids by converting energy extracted from their environment into directed motion. We first explain how articial microswimmers move forward by generating…
A loop of chain can move along its own tangents, maintaining a steady shape. An open-ended chain undergoing a nontrivial motion must change its shape. One consequence is that chains pulled around objects will fail to follow the contours of…
Inspired by recent experiments of cells accumulating on anisotropic substrates, we study a two-dimensional, compressible, isotropic, active fluid in the presence of anisotropic friction. We find that regions of anisotropic friction that are…
Insects use flight muscles attached at the base of the wings to produce impressive wing flapping frequencies. The maximum power output of these flight muscles is insufficient to maintain such wing oscillations unless there is good elastic…
We report an experimental investigation of the caging motion in a uniformly heated granular fluid, for a wide range of filling fractions, $\phi$. At low $\phi$ the classic diffusive behavior of a fluid is observed. However, as $\phi$ is…
Local interactions of uncoordinated individuals produce the collective behaviors of many biological systems, inspiring much of the current research in programmable matter. A striking example is the spontaneous assembly of fire ants into…
We propose an Individual-Based Model of ant-trail formation. The ants are modeled as self-propelled particles which deposit directed pheromones and interact with them through alignment interaction. The directed pheromones intend to model…
Four on-lattice and six off-lattice models for active matter are studied numerically, showing that in contact with a wall, they display universal wetting transitions between three distinctive phases. The particles, which interact via…
We investigate the dynamics of colloids at a fluid interface driven by attractive capillary interactions. At submillimeter length scales, the capillary attraction is formally analogous to two-dimensional gravity. In particular it is a…
The entropic force exerted by the Brownian fluctuations of a grafted semiflexible polymer upon a rigid smooth wall are calculated both analytically and by Monte Carlo simulations. Such forces are thought to play an important role for…
When interacting motile units self-organize into flocks, they realize one of the most robust ordered state found in nature. However, after twenty five years of intense research, the very mechanism controlling the ordering dynamics of both…
There is a recent surge of interest in the behavior of active particles that can at the same time align their direction of movement and synchronize their oscillations, known as swarmalators. While theoretical and numerical models of such…
A model of an Ant System where ants are controlled by a spiking neural circuit and a second order pheromone mechanism in a foraging task is presented. A neural circuit is trained for individual ants and subsequently the ants are exposed to…
We present a fluid dynamics video showing simulations of flexible bodies flapping and falling in an inviscid fluid. Vortex sheets are shed from the trailing edges of the bodies according to the Kutta condition. For interacting flags, a…
Active processes drive and guide biological dynamics across scales -- from subcellular cytoskeletal remodelling, through tissue development in embryogenesis, to population-level bacterial colonies expansion. In each of these, biological…
Inspired by the observation of intricate and beautifully dynamic patterns generated by food coloring on clean glass slides, we have investigated the behavior of propylene glycol and water droplets on high energy surfaces. In this fluid…
Liquids play an important role in adhesion and sliding friction. They behave as lubricants in human bodies especially in the joints. However, in many biological attachment systems they acts like adhesives, e.g. facilitating insects to move…
Efficient transportation, a hot topic in nonlinear science, is essential for modern societies and the survival of biological species. Biological evolution has generated a rich variety of successful solutions, which have inspired engineers…
We analyse the flow curves of a two-dimensional assembly of granular particles which are interacting via frictional contact forces. For packing fractions slightly below jamming, the fluid undergoes a large scale instability, implying a…
This fluid dynamics video is an entry for the Gallery of Fluid Motion for the 66th Annual Meeting of the Fluid Dynamics Division of the American Physical Society. We show the curious behaviour of a light ball interacting with a liquid jet.…