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- Physicists come together to explore mechanics of collective motion The Guardian, 13 January 2014.
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Collective motion is defined as the spontaneous emergence of ordered movement in a system consisting of many self-propelled agents. It can be observed in everyday life, for example in flocks of birds, schools of fish, herds of animals and also in crowds and car traffic. It also appears at the microscopic level: in colonies of bacteria, motility assays and artificial self-propelled particles. [1] [2] [3] The scientific community is trying to understand the universality of this phenomenon. In particular it is intensively investigated in statistical physics and in the field of active matter. Experiments on animals, [4] biological and synthesized self-propelled particles, simulations [5] and theories [6] [7] are conducted in parallel to study these phenomena. One of the most famous models that describes such behavior is the Vicsek model introduced by Tamás Vicsek et al. in 1995. [8]
Source: [9]
Just like biological systems in nature, self-propelled particles also respond to external gradients and show collective behavior. Micromotors or nanomotors can interact with self-generated gradients and exhibit schooling and exclusion behavior. [10] For example, Ibele, et al. demonstrated that silver chloride micromotors, in the presence of UV light, interact with each other at high concentrations and form schools. [11] Similar behavior can also be observed with titanium dioxide microparticles. [12] Silver orthophosphate microparticles exhibit transitions between schooling and exclusion behaviors in response to ammonia, hydrogen peroxide, and UV light. [13] [14] This behavior can be used to design a NOR gate since different combinations of the two different stimuli (ammonia and UV light) generate different outputs. Oscillations between schooling and exclusion behaviors are also tunable via changes in hydrogen peroxide concentration. The fluid flows generated by these oscillations are strong enough to transport microscale cargo and can even direct the assembly of close-packed colloidal crystal systems. [15]
Micromotors and nanomotors can also move preferentially in the direction of externally applied chemical gradients, a phenomenon defined as chemotaxis. Chemotaxis has been observed in self-propelled Au-Pt nanorods, which diffuse towards the source of hydrogen peroxide, when placed in a gradient of the chemical. [16] Silica microparticles with Grubbs catalyst tethered to them, also move towards higher monomer concentrations. [17] Enzymes also behave as nanomotors and migrate towards regions of higher substrate concentration, which is known as enzyme chemotaxis. [18] [19] One interesting use of enzyme nanomotor chemotaxis is the separation of active and inactive enzymes in microfluidic channels. [20] Another is the exploration of metabolon formation by studying the coordinated movement of the first four enzymes of the glycolysis cascade: hexokinase, phosphoglucose isomerase, phosphofructokinase and aldolase. [21] [22] More recently, enzyme-coated particles and enzyme-coated liposomes [23] have shown similar behavior in gradients of reactants in microfluidic channels. [24] In general, chemotaxis of biological and synthesized self-propelled particles provides a way of directing motion at the microscale and can be used for drug delivery, sensing, lab-on-a-chip devices and other applications. [25]
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)| Biological swarming | | |
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| Animal migration | ||
| Swarm algorithms | ||
| Collective motion | ||
| Swarm robotics | ||
| Related topics | ||
Swarm behaviour, or swarming, is a collective behaviour exhibited by entities, particularly animals, of similar size which aggregate together, perhaps milling about the same spot or perhaps moving en masse or migrating in some direction. It is a highly interdisciplinary topic.
A nanomotor is a molecular or nanoscale device capable of converting energy into movement. It can typically generate forces on the order of piconewtons.
Molecular motors are natural (biological) or artificial molecular machines that are the essential agents of movement in living organisms. In general terms, a motor is a device that consumes energy in one form and converts it into motion or mechanical work; for example, many protein-based molecular motors harness the chemical free energy released by the hydrolysis of ATP in order to perform mechanical work. In terms of energetic efficiency, this type of motor can be superior to currently available man-made motors. One important difference between molecular motors and macroscopic motors is that molecular motors operate in the thermal bath, an environment in which the fluctuations due to thermal noise are significant.
In physics, a "coffee ring" is a pattern left by a puddle of particle-laden liquid after it evaporates. The phenomenon is named for the characteristic ring-like deposit along the perimeter of a spill of coffee. It is also commonly seen after spilling red wine. The mechanism behind the formation of these and similar rings is known as the coffee ring effect or in some instances, the coffee stain effect, or simply ring stain.
Diffusiophoresis is the spontaneous motion of colloidal particles or molecules in a fluid, induced by a concentration gradient of a different substance. In other words, it is motion of one species, A, in response to a concentration gradient in another species, B. Typically, A is colloidal particles which are in aqueous solution in which B is a dissolved salt such as sodium chloride, and so the particles of A are much larger than the ions of B. But both A and B could be polymer molecules, and B could be a small molecule. For example, concentration gradients in ethanol solutions in water move 1 μm diameter colloidal particles with diffusiophoretic velocities of order 0.1 to 1 μm/s, the movement is towards regions of the solution with lower ethanol concentration. Both species A and B will typically be diffusing but diffusiophoresis is distinct from simple diffusion: in simple diffusion a species A moves down a gradient in its own concentration.
An electroosmotic pump (EOP), or EO pump, is used for generating flow or pressure by use of an electric field. One application of this is removing liquid flooding water from channels and gas diffusion layers and direct hydration of the proton exchange membrane in the membrane electrode assembly (MEA) of the proton exchange membrane fuel cells.
A colloidal crystal is an ordered array of colloidal particles and fine grained materials analogous to a standard crystal whose repeating subunits are atoms or molecules. A natural example of this phenomenon can be found in the gem opal, where spheres of silica assume a close-packed locally periodic structure under moderate compression. Bulk properties of a colloidal crystal depend on composition, particle size, packing arrangement, and degree of regularity. Applications include photonics, materials processing, and the study of self-assembly and phase transitions.
Active matter is matter composed of large numbers of active "agents", each of which consumes energy in order to move or to exert mechanical forces. Such systems are intrinsically out of thermal equilibrium. Unlike thermal systems relaxing towards equilibrium and systems with boundary conditions imposing steady currents, active matter systems break time reversal symmetry because energy is being continually dissipated by the individual constituents. Most examples of active matter are biological in origin and span all the scales of the living, from bacteria and self-organising bio-polymers such as microtubules and actin, to schools of fish and flocks of birds. However, a great deal of current experimental work is devoted to synthetic systems such as artificial self-propelled particles. Active matter is a relatively new material classification in soft matter: the most extensively studied model, the Vicsek model, dates from 1995.
Self-propelled particles (SPP), also referred to as self-driven particles, are terms used by physicists to describe autonomous agents, which convert energy from the environment into directed or persistent motion. Natural systems which have inspired the study and design of these particles include walking, swimming or flying animals. Other biological systems include bacteria, cells, algae and other micro-organisms. Generally, self-propelled particles often refer to artificial systems such as robots or specifically designed particles such as swimming Janus colloids, bimetallic nanorods, nanomotors and walking grains. In the case of directed propulsion, which is driven by a chemical gradient, this is referred to as chemotaxis, observed in biological systems, e.g. bacteria quorum sensing and ant pheromone detection, and in synthetic systems, e.g. enzyme molecule chemotaxis and enzyme powered hard and soft particles.
Differential dynamic microscopy (DDM) is an optical technique that allows performing light scattering experiments by means of a simple optical microscope. DDM is suitable for typical soft materials such as for instance liquids or gels made of colloids, polymers and liquid crystals but also for biological materials like bacteria and cells.
The Vicsek model is a mathematical model used to describe active matter. One motivation of the study of active matter by physicists is the rich phenomenology associated to this field. Collective motion and swarming are among the most studied phenomena. Within the huge number of models that have been developed to catch such behavior from a microscopic description, the most famous is the model introduced by Tamás Vicsek et al. in 1995.
Symmetry breaking of escaping ants is a herd behavior phenomenon observed when ants are constrained to a cell with two equidistant exits and then sprayed with an insect repellent. The ants tend to crowd one door more while trying to escape, thereby decreasing evacuation efficiency.
Micromotors are very small particles that can move themselves. The term is often used interchangeably with "nanomotor," despite the implicit size difference. These micromotors actually propel themselves in a specific direction autonomously when placed in a chemical solution. There are many different micromotor types operating under a host of mechanisms. Easily the most important examples are biological motors such as bacteria and any other self-propelled cells. Synthetically, researchers have exploited oxidation-reduction reactions to produce chemical gradients, local fluid flows, or streams of bubbles that then propel these micromotors through chemical media. Different stimuli, both external and internal can be used to control the behavior of these micromotors.
Many experimental realizations of self-propelled particles exhibit a strong tendency to aggregate and form clusters, whose dynamics are much richer than those of passive colloids. These aggregates of particles form for a variety of reasons, from chemical gradients to magnetic and ultrasonic fields. Self-propelled enzyme motors and synthetic nanomotors also exhibit clustering effects in the form of chemotaxis. Chemotaxis is a form of collective motion of biological or non-biological particles toward a fuel source or away from a threat, as observed experimentally in enzyme diffusion and also synthetic chemotaxis or phototaxis. In addition to irreversible schooling, self-propelled particles also display reversible collective motion, such as predator–prey behavior and oscillatory clustering and dispersion.
An adiabatic quantum motor is a mechanical device, typically nanometric, driven by a flux of quantum particles and able to perform cyclic motions. The adjective “adiabatic” in this context refers to the limit when the dynamics of the mechanical degrees of freedom is slow compared with the dwell time of the particles passing through the device. In this regime, it is commonly assumed that the mechanical degrees of freedom behave classically. This class of devices works essentially as quantum pumps operated in reverse. While in a quantum pump, the periodic movement of some parameters pumps quantum particles from one reservoir to another, in a quantum motor a DC current of particles induces the cyclic motion of the device. One key feature of these motors is that quantum interferences can be used to increase their efficiency by enhancing the reflection coefficient of the scattered particles. Although there are several proposals for the realization of adiabatic quantum motors, none of them have been verified experimentally.
Self-propulsion is the autonomous displacement of nano-, micro- and macroscopic natural and artificial objects, containing their own means of motion. Self-propulsion is driven mainly by interfacial phenomena. Various mechanisms of self-propelling have been introduced and investigated, which exploited phoretic effects, gradient surfaces, breaking the wetting symmetry of a droplet on a surface, the Leidenfrost effect, the self-generated hydrodynamic and chemical fields originating from the geometrical confinements, and soluto- and thermo-capillary Marangoni flows. Self-propelled system demonstrate a potential as micro-fluidics devices and micro-mixers. Self-propelled liquid marbles have been demonstrated.
Hartmut Löwen is a German physicist working in the field of statistical mechanics and soft matter physics.
A biohybrid microswimmer can be defined as a microswimmer that consist of both biological and artificial constituents, for instance, one or several living microorganisms attached to one or various synthetic parts.
A microswimmer is a microscopic object with the ability to move in a fluid environment. Natural microswimmers are found everywhere in the natural world as biological microorganisms, such as bacteria, archaea, protists, sperm and microanimals. Since the turn of the millennium there has been increasing interest in manufacturing synthetic and biohybrid microswimmers. Although only two decades have passed since their emergence, they have already shown promise for various biomedical and environmental applications.
Run-and-tumble motion is a movement pattern exhibited by certain bacteria and other microscopic agents. It consists of an alternating sequence of "runs" and "tumbles": during a run, the agent propels itself in a fixed direction, and during a tumble, it remains stationary while it reorients itself in preparation for the next run.