Active fluids exhibit spontaneous flows with complex spatiotemporal structure, which have
been observed in bacterial suspensions, sperm cells, cytoskeletal suspensions, self …

Active matter extracts energy from its surroundings at the single particle level and transforms
it into mechanical work. Examples include cytoskeleton biopolymers and bacterial …

The remarkable processes that characterize living organisms, such as motility, self-healing
and reproduction, are fuelled by a continuous injection of energy at the microscale. The field …

Various types of structures self-organised by animals exist in nature, such as bird flocks and
insect swarms, which stem from the local communications of vast numbers of limited …

Animal morphogenesis arises from the complex interplay between multiple mechanical and
biochemical processes with mutual feedback. Develo** an effective, coarse-grained …

Active matter physics is about systems in which energy is dissipated at some local level to
produce work. This is a generic situation, particularly in the living world but not only. What is …

The soil bacterium Myxococcus xanthus lives in densely packed groups that form dynamic
three-dimensional patterns in response to environmental changes, such as droplet-like …

Actomyosin machinery endows cells with contractility at a single-cell level. However, within a
monolayer, cells can be contractile or extensile based on the direction of pushing or pulling …

Liquid crystals (LCs) are ubiquitous in display technologies. The orientational ordering in the
nematic phase of LCs gives rise to structural anisotropy, the ability to form topological …

Most spindle-shaped cells (including smooth muscles and sarcomas) organize in vivo into
well-aligned 'nematic'domains,,, creating intrinsic topological defects that may be used to …