404 citations · 572 across the 20 of their papers we have counts for
22 papers
Active dislocations and topological traps govern dynamics of spiraling filamentous cyanobacteria
Xingting Gong, Manu Prakash
Activity can organize matter in unique configurations inaccessible to equilibrium systems, including a sundry of spiraling shapes seen in nature that range from galaxies to living…
Self-learning mechanical circuits
Vishal P. Patil, Ian Ho, Manu Prakash
Adaptivity and learning are ubiquitous in living systems, from cytoplasm and biofilms to animal flocks. However, the problem of designing nonliving mechanical systems capable of se…
A Swimming Rheometer: Self-propulsion of a freely-suspended swimmer enabled by viscoelastic normal stresses
Laurel A. Kroo, Jeremy P. Binagia, Noah Eckman +2
Self-propulsion at low Reynolds number is notoriously restricted, a concept that is commonly known as the "scallop theorem". Here we present a truly self-propelled swimmer (force-…
Mobile defects born from an energy cascade shape the locomotive behavior of a headless animal
Matthew S. Bull, Manu Prakash
The physics of behavior seeks simple descriptions of animal behavior. The field has advanced rapidly by using techniques in low dimensional dynamics distilled from computer vision.…
Ciliary flocking and emergent instabilities enable collective agility in a non-neuromuscular animal
Matthew S. Bull, Vivek N. Prakash, Manu Prakash
Effective organismal behavior responds appropriately to changes in the surrounding environment. Attaining this delicate balance of sensitivity and stability is a hallmark of the an…
Excitable mechanics embodied in a walking cilium
Matthew S. Bull, Laurel A. Kroo, Manu Prakash
Rapid transduction of sensory stimulation to action is essential for an animal to survive. To this end, most animals use the sub-second excitable and multistable dynamics of a neur…
Project 1000 x 1000: Centrifugal melt spinning for distributed manufacturing of N95 filtering facepiece respirators
Anton Molina, Pranav Vyas, Nikita Khlystov +7
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a global shortage of personal protective equipment. While existing supply chains are struggling to meet the surge in demand, the limited supply of…
Engineering reconfigurable flow patterns via surface-driven light-controlled active matter
Xingting Gong, Arnold Mathijssen, Zev Bryant +1
Surface-driven flows are ubiquitous in nature, from subcellular cytoplasmic streaming to organ-scale ciliary arrays. Here, we model how confined geometries can be used to engineer…
Rapid behavioral transitions produce chaotic mixing by a planktonic microswimmer
William Gilpin, Vivek N. Prakash, Manu Prakash
Despite their vast morphological diversity, many invertebrates have similar larval forms characterized by ciliary bands, innervated arrays of beating cilia that facilitate swimming…
Two-component Marangoni-contracted droplets: friction and shape
Adrien Benusiglio, Nate Cira, Manu Prakash
When a mixture of propylene glycol and water is deposited on a clean glass slide, it forms a droplet of a given apparent contact angle rather than spreading as one would expect on…
Two-component self-contracted droplets: long-range attraction and confinement effects
Adrien Benusiglio, Nate Cira, Anna Wei Lai +1
Marangoni self-contracted droplets are formed by a mixture of two liquids, one of larger surface tension and larger evaporation rate than the other. Due to evaporation, the droplet…
Synchronous magnetic control of water droplets in bulk ferrofluid
Georgios Katsikis, Alexandre Breant, Anatoly Rinberg +1
We present a microfluidic platform for two-dimensional manipulation of water droplets immersed in bulk oil-based ferrofluid. Although non-magnetic, the droplets are exclusively con…
Generation of droplet arrays with rational number spacing patterns driven by a periodic energy landscape
Anatoly Rinberg, Georgios Katsikis, Manu Prakash
The generation of droplets at low Reynolds numbers is driven by non-linear dynamics that give rise to complex patterns concerning both the droplet-to-droplet spacing and the indivi…
Vortex arrays and ciliary tangles underlie the feeding-swimming tradeoff in starfish larvae
William Gilpin, Vivek N. Prakash, Manu Prakash
Many marine invertebrates have larval stages covered in linear arrays of beating cilia, which propel the animal while simultaneously entraining planktonic prey. These bands are str…
Schistosoma mansoni cercariae exploit an elastohydrodynamic coupling to swim efficiently
Deepak Krishnamurthy, Georgios Katsikis, Arjun Bhargava +1
The motility of many parasites is critical for the infection process of their host, as exemplified by the transmission cycle of the blood fluke Schistosoma mansoni. In their human…
Punch Card Programmable Microfluidics
George Korir, Manu Prakash
Small volume fluid handling in single and multiphase microfluidics provides a promising strategy for efficient bio-chemical assays, low-cost point-of-care diagnostics and new appro…
Surface Tension dominates Insect Flight on Fluid Interfaces
Haripriya Mukundarajan, Thibaut C Bardon, Dong Hyun Kim +1
Flight on the two-dimensional air-water interface, with body weight supported by surface tension, is a unique locomotion strategy well adapted for the environmental niche on the su…
Foldscope: Origami-based paper microscope
James Cybulski, James Clements, Manu Prakash
Here we describe an ultra-low-cost origami-based approach for large-scale manufacturing of microscopes, specifically demonstrating brightfield, darkfield, and fluorescence microsco…
Dancing Droplets
Nate J Cira, Manu Prakash
Inspired by the observation of intricate and beautifully dynamic patterns generated by food coloring on clean glass slides, we have investigated the behavior of propylene glycol an…
Synchronous Droplet Microfluidics: One "Clock" to rule them all
Georgios Katsikis, Manu Prakash
Controlling fluid droplets efficiently in the microscale is of great interest both from a basic science and a technology perspective. We have designed and developed a general-purpo…
Flying in Two Dimensions
Manu Prakash, Donald Kim
Diversity and specialization of behavior in insects is unmatched. Insects hop, walk, run, jump, row, swim, glide and fly to propel themselves in a variety of environments. We have…
The Hungry Fly: Hydrodynamics of feeding in the common house fly
Manu Prakash, Miles Steele
A large number of insect species feed primarily on a fluid diet. To do so, they must overcome the numerous challenges that arise in the design of high-efficiency, miniature pumps.…