Tangling of Tethered Swimmers: Interactions between Two Nematodes

Condensed Matter journal club

Tangling of Tethered Swimmers: Interactions between Two Nematodes

  • Event time: 11:30am
  • Event date: 10th October 2014
  • Speaker: (School of Physics & Astronomy, University of Edinburgh)
  • Location: Room 2511,

Event details

Abstract

The tangling of two tethered microswimming worms serving as the ends of "active strings" is investigated experimentally and modeled analytically. C. elegans nematodes of similar size are caught by their tails using micropipettes and left to swim and interact at different separations over long times. The worms are found to tangle in a reproducible and statistically predictable manner, which is modeled based on the relative motion of the worm heads. Our results provide insight into the intricate tangling interactions present in active biological systems.
PRL 113 article 138101 (2014)
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Authors

Matilda Backholm, Rafael D. Schulman, William S. Ryu, Kari Dalnoki-Veress

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