MIT engineers developed a method to grow artificial muscle tissue that twitches and flexes in multiple, coordinated directions. These tissues could be useful for building “biohybrid” robots powered by soft, artificially grown muscle fibers.

When exposed to high temperatures and pressure, water enters a state in which liquid and gas can no longer be distinguished. For a long time, there has been controversy about how this looks like on a molecular level.

Researchers from Science Tokyo have discovered that bacterial swarms transition from stable vortices to chaotic turbulence through distinct intermediate states. Combining experiments with bacterial swarms, computer simulations, and mathematical modeling, the team clarified the intricate process by which orderly swirling turns to disordered turbulence as the free space available to bacteria increases. These findings provide new insights into active matter physics and could inform future applications in micro-robotics, biosensing, and active fluid-based micro-scale systems.