Worm-like Spirostomum ambiguum are millimeter-sized single-cell organisms that live in brackish waters. In milliseconds, these cells can retract to half their original length, generating g-forces greater than a Formula One Keep reading
Tag: microorganisms
Curved Cracks
When mixtures of particles and fluids dry, they typically leave a pattern of straight cracks. Here researchers explore what happens when the drying film contains bacteria from the family E. Keep reading
Recreating Infinity
In the ocean, tiny organisms can migrate hundreds of meters through the water column. Recreating and tracking those journeys in a lab is quite a challenge, but it’s one the Keep reading
Escaping the Limits of Viscosity
For large creatures, it’s not hard to feel the evidence of someone else swimming nearby. But to tiny swimmers water is incredibly viscous and hard to move. These creatures have Keep reading
Communication Between Microswimmers
The elongated cells of Spirostomum ambiguum swim using hair-like cilia, but when threatened, the cells contract violently, sending out long-range hydrodynamic waves, like those visualized above. Along with these waves, the Keep reading
Reducing Viscosity With Bacteria
Conventional wisdom – and the Second Law of Thermodynamics – require all fluids to have viscosity, with the noted and bizarre exception of superfluids, which can flow with zero viscosity. In Keep reading
Swimming with Corkscrews
E. coli, like many bacteria, swim using corkscrew-like appendages called flagella. Because the bacteria are extremely tiny – their flagella may be less than ten microns long – their swimming Keep reading
Starfish Vortices
Starfish larvae, like other microorganisms, use tiny hair-like cilia to move the fluid around them. By beating these cilia in opposite directions on different parts of their bodies, the larvae Keep reading
Swimming at Microscale
Tiny organisms live in a world dominated by viscosity. There’s no coasting or gliding. If a microorganism stops swimming, friction will bring it to a halt in less than the Keep reading