Related papers: Viscous control of peeling an elastic sheet by ben…
Cell crawling requires the generation of intracellular forces by the cytoskeleton and their transmission to an extracellular substrate through specific adhesion molecules. Crawling cells show many features of excitable systems, such as…
Wrinkling of an inextensible elastic lining of an inner-lined tube under imposed pressure is considered. A simple equation modeling the elastic properties of the lining, the pressure, and the soft-substrate forces is derived. This equation…
A wetting liquid is driven through a thin gap due to surface tension and when the gap boundaries are elastic, the liquid deforms the gap as it rises. But when the fluid boundaries are also permeable (or poroelastic), the liquid can permeate…
In this paper we study kinetics of spreading of thin liquid films on solid interfaces. We present an overview of current experimental picture and discuss available theoretical approaches and their limitations. We report some new…
The envelopes covering bacterial cytoplasm possess remarkable elastic properties. They are rigid enough to resist large pressures while being flexible enough to adapt to growth under environmental constraints. Similarly, the virus shells…
The study of growth-induced surface wrinkling in constrained bilayers comprising a thin film attached to a thick substrate is a canonical model for understanding pattern formation in many biological systems. While the bilayer model has…
We investigate the dynamics of a particle moving randomly along a disordered hetero-polymer subjected to rapid conformational changes which induce superdiffusive motion in chemical coordinates. We study the antagonistic interplay between…
We present a deformation-dependent propulsion phenomenon for soft particles such as cells in microchannels. It is based on a broken time reversal symmetry generated by a fast forward and slow backward motion of a fluid which does not…
The resistance to fracture of reversible biopolymer hydrogels is an important control factor of the cutting/slicing and eating characteristics of food gels. It is also critical for their utilization in tissue engineering, for which…
We develop general methods to calculate the mobilities of extended bodies in (or associated with) membranes and films. We demonstrate a striking difference between in-plane motion of rod-like inclusions and the corresponding case of bulk…
We study the birth and propagation of a delamination front in the peeling of a soft, weakly adhesive layer. In a controlled-displacement setting, the layer partially detaches via a subcritical instability and the motion continues until…
Random lateral translocation of lipids and proteins is a universal process on membrane surfaces. Local aggregation or organization of lipids and proteins can be induced when this lateral random diffusion is mediated by the electrostatic…
The motion of a eukaryotic cell presents a variety of interesting and challenging problems from both a modeling and a computational perspective. The processes span many spatial scales (from molecular to tissue) as well as disparate time…
A stiff one-armed swimmer in glycerine goes nowhere, but if its arm is elastic, exerting a restorative torque proportional to local curvature, the swimmer can go on its way. Considering this happy consequence and the principles of…
The nucleation and/or spreading of bubbles in water under tension (due to water evaporation) can be problematic for most plants along the ascending sap network from root to leaves, named xylem. Due to global warming, trees facing drought…
We study the mechanism of the `pearling' instability seen recently in experiments on lipid tubules under a local applied laser intensity. We argue that the correct boundary conditions are fixed chemical potentials, or surface tensions…
Many of the cell membrane vital functions are achieved by the self-organization of the proteins and biopolymers embedded in it. The protein dynamics are in part determined by its drag. A large number of these proteins can polymerize to form…
A simple model for the peeling process of pressure-sensitive adhesive tape is presented. The model consists of linear springs and dashpots and can be solved analytically. Based on the modeling, the curved profile of the peeling tape is…
Excess pore pressure in granular--fluid mixtures can transiently suppress frictional contacts and dramatically enhance flow mobility, yet its evolution is commonly modeled using constant effective diffusivities. Here we show that the…
We study the spreading of droplets in a near-critical phase-separated liquid mixture, using a combination of experiments, lubrication theory and finite-element numerical simulations. The classical Tanner's law describing the spreading of…