Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
irrelevant complicated mechanisms pertinent to biological systems. Therefore it is
particularly well suited to study the purely physical aspects of collective motion.
ficient for collective ordering to occur. We observed the formation of ordered rafts
and the possibility of the existence of a phase transition from the individual to col-
lective behaviour. We studied their collective behaviour in confinement, and found
behaviour previously only predicted by theory. These studies suggest that they would
be very well suited to complement theoretical approaches to obtain a quantitative
understanding of collective motion. Such an understanding, naturally, has many
applications. For example, understanding the collective global rearrangements of
swimming microscopic algal populations, could have dramatic environmental and
economic implications.
