Related papers: Dynamic Flow Control Through Active Matter Program…
High-precision micromanipulation techniques, including optical tweezers and hydrodynamic trapping, have garnered wide-spread interest. Recent advances in optofluidic multiplexed assembly and microrobotics demonstrate significant progress,…
Spontaneous directed motion, a hallmark of cell biology, is unusual in classical statistical physics. Here we study, using both numerical and analytical methods, organized motion in models of the cytoskeleton in which constituents are…
Using novel micro-printing techniques, we develop a versatile experimental setup that allows us to study how lateral confinement tames the active flows and defect properties of the microtubule/kinesin active nematic system. We demonstrate…
The locomotion of flexible membrane-like organisms on top of curved surfaces appears in different contexts and scales. Still, such dynamics have not yet been quantitatively modeled and no realization of such motion in manmade systems has…
The actin cytoskeleton of cells is in continuous motion due to both polymerization of new filaments and their contraction by myosin II molecular motors. Through adhesion to the substrate, such intracellular flow can be converted into cell…
Artificial microswimmers are a new technology with promising microfluidics and biomedical applications, such as directed cargo transport, microscale assembly, and targeted drug delivery. A fundamental barrier to realising this potential is…
Living matter moves, deforms, and organizes itself. In cells this is made possible by networks of polymer filaments and crosslinking molecules that connect filaments to each other and that act as motors to do mechanical work on the network.…
Self-propelled microparticles create flow fields that determine how they interact with surfaces, external flows, and each other. These flow fields fall into distinct classes--pushers, pullers, and neutral swimmers--each exhibiting…
One objective of active matter science is to unveil principles by which chaotic microscale dynamics could be transformed into useful work. A nematic liquid crystal environment offers a number of possibilities, one of which is a directional…
Complex systems often have features that can be modeled by advanced mathematical tools [1]. Of special interests are the features of complex systems that have a network structure as such systems are important for modeling technological and…
Engineering synthetic materials that mimic the remarkable complexity of living organisms is a fundamental challenge in science and technology. We study the spatiotemporal patterns that emerge when an active nematicfilm of microtubules and…
Living cells are soft bodies of a characteristic form, but endowed with a capacity for a steady turnover of their structures. Both of these material properties, i.e. recovery of the shape after an external stress has been imposed and…
Understanding and controlling the dynamic interactions between fluid flows and solid materials and structures-a field known as fluid-structure interaction -is central not only to established disciplines such as aerospace and naval…
Machines enabled the Industrial Revolution and are central to modern technological progress: A machine's parts transmit forces, motion, and energy to one another in a predetermined manner. Today's engineering frontier, building artificial…
Active gels are a class of biologically-relevant material containing embedded agents that spontaneously generate forces acting on a sparse filament network. In vitro experiments of protein filaments and molecular motors have revealed a…
Tiny cilia drive the flow of surrounding fluids through asymmetric jumping, which is one of the main ways for biological organisms to control fluid transport at the micro-scale. Due to its huge application prospects in medical and…
Transformers are central to advances in artificial intelligence (AI), excelling in fields ranging from computer vision to natural language processing. Despite their success, their large parameter count and computational demands challenge…
We present a theoretical framework for new structural metamaterials we refer to as liquid structures: a topology of bistable mechanisms made up of a high number of cells that are sub-mechanisms composed of pseudo-rigid links and joints. The…
The ability to robustly and efficiently control the dynamics of nonlinear systems lies at the heart of many current technological challenges, ranging from drug delivery systems to ensuring flight safety. Most such scenarios are too complex…
Smart active particles can acquire some limited knowledge of the fluid environment from simple mechanical cues and exert a control on their preferred steering direction. Their goal is to learn the best way to navigate by exploiting the…