Related papers: Controlling microalgae populations by phototactic …
In the past decade the volvocine green algae, spanning from the unicellular $Chlamydomonas$ to multicellular $Volvox$, have emerged as model organisms for a number of problems in biological fluid dynamics. These include flagellar…
Inputs to signaling pathways can have complex statistics that depend on the environment and on the behavioral response to previous stimuli. Such behavioral feedback is particularly important in navigation. Successful navigation relies on…
Living microorganisms are capable of a tactic response to external stimuli by swimming towards or away from the stimulus source; they do so by adapting their tactic signal transduction pathways to the environment. Their self-motility thus…
Microorganisms live in inherently dynamic environments where fluctuations in biotic and abiotic factors shape their behaviour, physiology, and fitness. The concept of ecological memory: the lasting imprint of prior environmental cues,…
Flagella and cilia are cellular appendages that inherit essential functions of microbial life including sensing and navigating the environment. In order to propel a swimming microorganism they displace the surrounding fluid by means of…
We study the stochastic force dynamics of a model microswimmer (Chlamydomonas reinhardtii), using a combined experimental, theoretical, and numerical approach. While swimming dynamics have been extensively studied using hydrodynamic…
Efficiently balancing photochemistry and photoprotection is crucial for survival and productivity of photosynthetic organisms in the rapidly fluctuating light levels found in natural environments. The ability to respond quickly to sudden…
The incessant activity of swimming microorganisms has a direct physical effect on surrounding microscopic objects, leading to enhanced diffusion far beyond the level of Brownian motion with possible influences on the spatial distribution of…
In this paper we consider dynamics of a molecular system subjected to external pumping by a light source. Within a completely quantum mechanical treatment, we derive a general formula, which enables to asses effects of different light…
Living systems are capable of locomotion, reconfiguration, and replication. To perform these tasks, cells spatiotemporally coordinate the interactions of force-generating, "active" molecules that create and manipulate non-equilibrium…
Collective cell migration in response to a chemical cue occurs in many biological processes such as morphogenesis and cancer metastasis. Clusters of migratory cells in these systems are capable of responding to gradients of less than 1%…
We study the distribution of swimming micro-organisms advected by a model turbulent flow and attracted towards a localised light source through phototaxis. It is shown that particles aggregate along a dynamical attractor with fractal…
The recent interest in using microorganisms for biofuels is motivation enough to study bioconvection and cell dispersion in tubes subject to imposed flow. To optimize light and nutrient uptake, many microorganisms swim in directions biased…
We present experiments on the collective dynamics of macroscopic photoactive self-propelled particles subjected to spatiotemporally varying excitation. The particles move within an arena divided into two regions with different illumination…
Thanks to recent technological advances, it is now possible to track with an unprecedented precision and for long periods of time the movement patterns of many living organisms in their habitat. The increasing amount of data available on…
Bacteria possess diverse mechanisms to regulate their motility in response to environmental and physiological signals, enabling them to navigate complex habitats and adapt their behavior. Among these mechanisms, interspecies recognition…
Biological tissues have been observed to display emergent fluid-like properties, owing to physical interactions between cells. However, it remains unclear in general how these fluid-like properties affect tissue structure and function.…
The soft character of organic materials leads to strong coupling between molecular nuclear and electronic dynamics. This coupling opens the way to control charge transport in organic electronic devices by inducing molecular vibrational…
We introduce a device developed to perform a 3D tracking of passive or active particles under flow, confined in a medium of hundreds micrometers wide. Micro-objects are placed inside a vertical glass capillary and two mirrors are set behind…
Metabolism unfolds within specific organelles in eukaryotic cells. Lysosomes are highly metabolically active organelles, and their metabolic states dynamically influence signal transduction, cellular homeostasis, and organismal…