Related papers: Smart helical structures inspired by the pellicle …
Cells and microorganisms employ dynamic shape changes to enable steering and avoidance for efficient spatial exploration and collective organization. In contrast, active colloids, their synthetic counterparts, currently lack similar…
We present two universal hinge patterns that enable a strip of material to fold into any connected surface made up of unit squares on the 3D cube grid--for example, the surface of any polycube. The folding is efficient: for target surfaces…
The interplay between cytoskeletal architecture and the nonlinearity of the interactions due to bucklable filaments plays a key role in modulating the cell's mechanical stability and affecting its structural rearrangements. We study a model…
Tangled active filaments are ubiquitous in nature, from chromosomal DNA and cilia carpets to root networks and worm blobs. How activity and elasticity facilitate collective topological transformations in living tangled matter is not well…
We theoretically study the conformations of a helical semi-flexible filament confined to a flat surface. This squeezed helix exhibits a variety of unexpected shapes resembling circles, waves or spirals depending on the material parameters.…
This article describes a natural piecewise Euclidean bi-simplicial cell structure for the space of $n$-element multisets in a fixed Euclidean rectangle. In particular, we highlight some connections with spaces of complex polynomials and…
A living cell actively generates traction forces on its environment with its actin cytoskeleton. These forces deform the cell elastic substrate which, in turn, affects the traction forces exerted by the cell and can consequently modify the…
Entangled matter displays unusual and attractive properties and mechanisms: tensile strength, capabilities for assembly and disassembly, damage tolerance. While some of the attributes and mechanisms share some traits with traditional…
This research investigates dynamic response of tunable periodic structures and homogenization methods in magnetoelastic composites (MECs). The research on tunable periodic structures is focused on the design, modeling and understanding of…
Metasurfaces have attracted significant research interest owing to their unprecedented control over the spatial distributions of electromagnetic fields. Herein we propose the concept of metasurface tessellation to achieve reconfigurable…
We consider helical configurations of a cholesteric liquid crystal (CLC) sandwiched between two substrates with homogeneous director orientation favored at both confining plates. We study the CLC twist wavenumber $q$ characterizing the…
Smart surfaces that reversibly change the interfacial friction coefficients in response to external stimuli enable a wide range of applications, such as grips, seals, brake pads, packaging films, and fabrics. Here a new concept of such a…
The depletion interaction mediated by non-adsorbing polymers promotes condensation and assembly of repulsive colloidal particles into diverse higher-order structures and materials. One example, with particularly rich emergent behaviors, is…
In this work, we investigate the use of pre-twisted metallic ribbons as building blocks for shape-changing structures. We manufacture these elements by twisting initially flat ribbons about their (lengthwise) centroidal axis into a…
There is a growing interest in cylindrical structures of hard and soft particles. A promising new method to assemble such structures has recently been introduced by Lee et al. [T. Lee, K. Gizynski, and B. Grzybowski, Adv. Mater. 29, 1704274…
The presence of ordered structures such as helices in collapsed states of polymer chains is still an open question challenging physics and biology. In this work, we present a potential model for polymer chains with monomers that are not…
In this work, we discuss and numerically validate a strategy to attain reversible macroscopic changes in the wave propagation characteristics of cellular metamaterials with soft microstructures. The proposed cellular architecture is…
This paper extends on a recent work where it was shown that forces dependent on the helical structure may cause two DNA molecules to spontaneously braid [R. Cortini et Al, Biophys. J. 101, 875 (2011)]. Here, bending fluctuations of DNA…
$\alpha$-helices stand out as common and relatively invariant secondary structural elements of proteins. However, $\alpha$-helices are not rigid bodies and their deformations can be significant in protein function ({\it e.g.} coiled coils).…
Spider silk is a remarkable example of bio-material with superior mechanical characteristics. Its multilevel structural organization of dragline and viscid silk leads to unusual and tunable properties, extensively studied from a…