A combined rheometry and imaging study of viscosity reduction in bacterial suspensions.
basic_science · Level V
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- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 31964833.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1073/pnas.1912690117 and PMC identifier 7007524.
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Abstract
Suspending self-propelled "pushers" in a liquid lowers its viscosity. We study how this phenomenon depends on system size in bacterial suspensions using bulk rheometry and particle-tracking rheoimaging. Above the critical bacterial volume fraction needed to decrease the viscosity to zero, [Formula: see text], large-scale collective motion emerges in the quiescent state, and the flow becomes nonlinear. We confirm a theoretical prediction that such instability should be suppressed by confinement. Our results also show that a recent application of active liquid-crystal theory to such systems is untenable.
Medical subject headings
- Bacterial Physiological Phenomena
- Suspensions