#microswimmers

The field of active matter looks at the collective motion of particles and organisms--how birds flock and fish school. (Image and research credit: T. Zhou and J. Brady; via APS)

Scientists 3D print microscopic Star Trek spaceship that moves on its own

By Alaa Elassar, CNN

Sun, November 08, 2020

Artificial microswimmers slow down and accumulate in low-fuel regions — ScienceDaily

A Mason Engineering researcher has discovered that artificial microswimmers accumulate where their speed is minimized, an idea that could have implications for improving the efficacy of targeted cancer therapy. Jeff Moran, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering in the Volgenau School of Engineering, and colleagues from the University of Washington in Seattle studied self-propelled…

In the quest to shrink motors so they can maneuver in tiny spaces like inside and between human cells, scientists have taken inspiration from millions of years of plant evolution and incorporated, for the first time, corkscrew structures from plants into a new kind of helical “microswimmer.” The low-cost development, which appears in ACS’ journal Nano Letters, could be used on a large scale in targeted drug delivery and other applications.