Related papers: Active fluid networks excite visco-elastic modes f…
This paper uses a recently presented abstract, tuneable Boolean regulatory network model extended to consider aspects of mobile DNA, such as transposons. The significant role of mobile DNA in the evolution of natural systems is becoming…
Contractile forces are essential for many developmental processes involving cell shape change and tissue deformation. Recent experiments on reconstituted actomyosin networks, the major component of the contractile machinery, have shown that…
Slime mould Physarum polycephalum is large single cell with intriguingly smart behaviour. The slime mould shows outstanding abilities to adapt its protoplasmic network to varying environmental conditions. The slime mould can solve tasks of…
The flow of cerebrospinal fluid through the perivascular spaces of the brain is believed to play a crucial role in eliminating toxic waste proteins. While the driving forces of this flow have been enigmatic, experiments have shown that…
Transport of molecular motors along protein filaments in a half-closed geometry is a common feature of biologically relevant processes in cellular protrusions. Using a lattice gas model we study how the interplay between active and…
Liquid diodes are surface structures that facilitate the flow of liquids in a specific direction. When these structures are within the capillary regime, they promote liquid transport without the need for external forces. In nature, they are…
Slime mould P. polycephalum is a single cells visible by unaided eye. The cells shows a wide spectrum of intelligent behaviour. By interpreting the behaviour in terms of computation one can make a slime mould based computing device. The…
Flow networks are fundamental for understanding systems such as animal and plant vasculature or power distribution grids. These networks can encode, transmit, and transform information embodied in the spatial and temporal distribution of…
Enhanced colloidal transport beyond the limit imposed by diffusion is usually achieved through external fields. Here, we demonstrate the ballistic transport of a colloidal sphere using internal sources of energy provided by an attached…
Understanding vascular adaptation, namely what drives veins to shrink or grow, is key for the self-organization of flow networks and their optimization. From the top-down principle of minimizing flow dissipation at a fixed metabolic cost…
Locally broken symmetries are used across fields to transport matter, particles and information in preferential directions. Beyond local mechanisms, spatially distributed nonlinearities in crystalline media have enabled non-reciprocal…
Microorganism motility often takes place within complex, viscoelastic fluid environments, e.g., sperm in cervicovaginal mucus and bacteria in biofilms. In such complex fluids, strains and stresses generated by the microorganism are stored…
We derive the main properties of adaptive Hagen-Poiseuille flows in elastic microchannel networks similar to biological veins found in organisms. We demonstrate that adaptive Hagen-Poiseuille flows effectively simulate key features of…
The mechanical properties of the cell depend crucially on the tension of its cytoskeleton, a biopolymer network that is put under stress by active motor proteins. While the fibrous nature of the network is known to strongly affect the…
A vibrational model of transport properties of dense fluids assumes that solid-like oscillations of atoms around their temporary equilibrium positions dominate the dynamical picture. The temporary equilibrium positions of atoms do not form…
Molecular-motor generated active stresses drive the cytoskeleton away from equilibrium, endowing it with tunable mechanical properties that are essential for diverse functions such as cell division and motility[1-5]. Designing analogous…
The plasmodium of the slime mould Physarum polycephalum has recently received significant attention for its value as a highly malleable amorphous computing substrate. In laboratory-based experiments, micro- and nanoscale artificial circuit…
Living systems often exhibit internal driving: active, molecular processes drive nonequilibrium phenomena such as metabolism or migration. Active gels constitute a fascinating class of internally driven matter, where molecular motors exert…
Transport networks play a key role across four realms of eukaryotic life: slime molds, fungi, plants, and animals. In addition to the developmental algorithms that build them, many also employ adaptive strategies to respond to stimuli,…
Flux of rigid or soft particles (such as drops, vesicles, red blood cells, etc.) in a channel is a complex function of particle concentration, which depends on the details of induced dissipation and suspension structure due to hydrodynamic…