Presented by:
Francis Woodhouse University of Cambridge
Date:
Thursday 9th November 2017 - 15:00 to 16:30
Venue:
INI Seminar Room 2
Abstract:
The ability of chemically or optically powered
active matter to self-organise and spontaneously flow makes these systems
increasingly attractive in smart microfluidics and materials design. Active
matter has the potential to serve as the bedrock of customisable, controllable
transport and processing systems, but to fully harness this potential, its
intrinsic tendency toward turbulence must be tamed. Geometric confinement has
recently emerged as an excellent stabilising scheme, allowing complex yet
controllable behaviours to be engineered by careful design of the flow
environment. First, we will take a tour through recent experimental and
theoretical studies showcasing the power of geometry over active matter,
including a recent realisation of a bacterial Ising model. I will then
introduce a new model for active flow in complex network-like environments,
where network topology is the key driver of self-organising behaviour. This
will culminate in the theory of active matter logic, proposing how carefully
designed flow topologies could be harnessed to construct logic gates and to
store data, thus laying the foundation for autonomous microfluidic logic
devices driven by bacterial fluids, active liquid crystals or chemically engineered
motile colloids.
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