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Bacteria surfing the elastic wave

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Elasticity-driven synchronization in active solids has been predicted theoretically and was recently realized in a synthetic system. A biological realization is now demonstrated in a bacterial biofilm.

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Fig. 1: Analogy between active elastic solids and biofilms.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA

    Japinder Nijjer & Jing Yan

  2. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Tal Cohen

  3. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Tal Cohen

  4. Quantitative Biology Institute, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA

    Jing Yan

Authors
  1. Japinder Nijjer
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  2. Tal Cohen
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  3. Jing Yan
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jing Yan.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Nijjer, J., Cohen, T. & Yan, J. Bacteria surfing the elastic wave. Nat. Phys. 19, 6–7 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-022-01862-y

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