Related papers: Active fluid networks excite visco-elastic modes f…
The model organism Physarum polycephalum is known to perform decentralised problem solving despite absence of nervous system. Experimental evidence and modelling studies have linked these abilities, and in particular maze-solving, to some…
Active biological flow networks pervade nature and span a wide range of scales, from arterial blood vessels and bronchial mucus transport in humans to bacterial flow through porous media or plasmodial shuttle streaming in slime molds.…
The dynamics of flow within a material transport network is dependent upon the dynamics of its power source. Responding to a change of these dynamics is critical for the fitness of living flow networks, e.g. the animal vasculature, which…
Cord-forming fungi form extensive networks that continuously adapt to maintain an efficient transport system. As osmotically driven water uptake is often distal from the tips, and aqueous fluids are incompressible, we propose that growth…
Plasmodium of Physarum polycephalum is a single cell visible by unaided eye, which spans sources of nutrients with its protoplasmic network. In a very simple experimental setup we recorded electric potential of the propagating plasmodium.…
Active fluids operate by constantly dissipating energy at the particle level to perform a directed motion, yielding dynamics and phases without any equilibrium equivalent. The emerging behaviors have been studied extensively, yet…
Fluid-resistance limited transport of vesicles through narrow constrictions is a recurring theme in many biological and engineering applications. Inspired by the motor-driven movement of soft membrane-bound vesicles into closed neuronal…
Motivated by recent experimental studies, we derive and analyze a twodimensional model for the contraction patterns observed in protoplasmic droplets of Physarum polycephalum. The model couples a model of an active poroelastic two-phase…
Many foraging microorganisms rely upon cellular transport networks to deliver nutrients, fluid and organelles between different parts of the organism. Networked organisms ranging from filamentous fungi to slime molds demonstrate a…
Belgium is amongst few artificial countries, established on purpose, when Dutch and French speaking parts were joined in a single unit. This makes Belgium a particularly interesting testbed for studying bio-inspired techniques for…
Transport networks are typically optimized, either by evolutionary pressures in biological systems or by human design in engineered structures. In the case of systems such as the animal vasculature, the transport of fluids is hindered by…
The plasmodium of slime mould Physarum polycephalum behaves as an amorphous reaction-diffusion computing substrate and is capable of apparently intelligent behaviour. But how does intelligence emerge in an acellular organism? Through a…
Plasmodium of Physarum polycephalum is a large cell, visible by unaided eye, which exhibits sophisticated patterns of foraging behaviour. The plasmodium's behaviour is well interpreted in terms of computation, where data are spatially…
Intracellular transport is essential for maintaining proper cellular function in most eukaryotic cells, with perturbations in active transport resulting in several types of disease. Efficient delivery of critical cargos to specific…
Ciliated organs transport viscous fluids through confined ducts, yet how duct morphology and ciliary activity jointly set the limits of flow rate and sustainable pressure remains unclear. Here, we model dense arrays of beating cilia lining…
The cytoskeleton is an important subsystem of cells that is involved for example in cell division and locomotion. It consists of filaments that are cross-linked by molecular motors that can induce relative sliding between filaments and…
Flows over remarkably long distances are crucial to the functioning of many organisms, across all kingdoms of life. Coordinated flows are fundamental to power deformations, required for migration or development, or to spread resources and…
We experimentally derived a unique one-to-one mapping between a range of selected bioactive chemicals and patterns of oscillations of the slime mould's extacellular electrical potential.
A flexible membrane deforming its shape in time can self-propel in a viscous fluid. Alternatively, if the membrane is anchored, its deformation will lead to fluid transport. Past work in this area focused on situations where the deformation…
Flexible filaments moving in viscous fluids are ubiquitous in the natural microscopic world. For example, the swimming of bacteria and spermatozoa as well as important physiological functions at organ-level, such as the cilia-induced motion…