Related papers: Active fluid networks excite visco-elastic modes f…
The ability of many living systems to actively self-propel underlies critical biomedical, environmental, and industrial processes. While such active transport is well-studied in uniform settings, environmental complexities such as geometric…
The mechanical properties of a thin, planar material, perfused by an embedded flow network, can be changed locally and globally by the fluid transport and storage, resulting in small or large-scale deformation, such as out-of-plane…
Large-scale force generation is essential for biological functions such as cell motility, embryonic development, and muscle contraction. In these processes, forces generated at the molecular level by motor proteins are transmitted by…
Many studies have shown that Physarum polycephalum slime mold is able to find the shortest path in a maze. In this paper we study this behavior in a network, using a hyperbolic model of chemotaxis. Suitable transmission and boundary…
Existing models of adaptation in biological flow networks consider their constituent vessels (e.g. veins and arteries) to be rigid, thus predicting a non physiological response when the drive (e.g. the heart) is dynamic. Here we show that…
Esophageal transport is a physiological process that mechanically transports an ingested food bolus from the pharynx to the stomach via the esophagus, a multi-layered muscular tube. This process involves interactions between the bolus, the…
In biological systems, molecular-scale forces and motions are pivotal for enabling processes like motility, shape change, and replication. These forces and motions are organized, amplified, and transmitted across macroscopic scales by…
Biological systems achieve precise control over ambient fluids through the self-organization of active protein structures including flagella, cilia, and cytoskeletal networks. In active structures individual proteins consume chemical energy…
In this paper we present a network model to study the impact of spatial distribution of constituents, coupling between them and diffusive processes in the context of biological situations. The model is in terms of network of mobile elements…
Rapid transduction of sensory stimulation to action is essential for an animal to survive. To this end, most animals use the sub-second excitable and multistable dynamics of a neuromuscular system. Here, studying an animal without neurons…
The large-scale collective behavior of biological systems can be characterized by macroscopic transport, which arises from the non-equilibrium microscopic interactions among individual constituents. A prominent example is the formation of…
We study the dynamics of a model of membrane vesicle transport into dendritic spines, which are bulbous intracellular compartments in neurons driven by molecular motors. We reduce the lubrication model proposed in [Fai et al., Active…
How internal forces are transduced into motion through soft, fluid membranes remains a fundamental question in the study of active systems. To investigate this coupling, we develop a minimal system consisting of a single ferromagnetic…
We construct electronic oscillator from acellular slime mould Physarum polycephalum. The slime mould oscillator is made of two electrodes connected by a protoplasmic tube of the living slime mould. A protoplasmic tube has an average…
Contractile biopolymer networks, such as the actomyosin meshwork of animal cells, are ubiquitous in living organisms. The active gel theory, which provides the thermodynamic framework for these materials, has been mostly used in conjunction…
Actin is a key component of the cytoskeleton, which plays central roles in cell motility, division, growth, and tensile strength. To enable this wide range of transient mechanical processes and properties, networks of actin filaments…
Active matter comprises individually driven units that convert locally stored energy into mechanical motion. Interactions between driven units lead to a variety of non-equilibrium collective phenomena in active matter. One of such phenomena…
The study of elastic structures embedded with fluid-filled cavities received considerable attention in fields such as autonomous materials, sensors, actuators, and smart systems. This work studies an elastic beam embedded with a set of…
How systems are endowed with migration capacity is a fascinating question with implications ranging from the design of novel active systems to the control of microbial populations. Bacteria, which can be found in a variety of environments,…
Plasmodium of Physarym polycephalum is an ideal biological substrate for implementing concurrent and parallel computation, including combinatorial geometry and optimization on graphs. We report results of scoping experiments on Physarum…