2009/01/14 by Knut Drescher, Kyriacos C. Leptos, Idán Tuval +5 · 7 citations
Engineering · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Algae #Biology #Biophysics #Botany #Cell #Flagellum #Geometry #Micro and Nano Robotics #Microfluidic and Bio-sensing Technologies #Multicellular organism #Paleontology #Physics #Pickering emulsions and particle stabilization #Surface (topology) #cond-mat.soft
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.102.168101
published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 168101 (2009) · 4 pages, 5 figures
arxiv created 2009/01/14 · openalex publication_date 2009/04/20 · arxiv updated 2015/05/12 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
The spherical alga Volvox swims by means of flagella on thousands of surface somatic cells. This geometry and its large size make it a model organism for studying the fluid dynamics of multicellularity. Remarkably, when two nearby Volvox colonies swim close to a solid surface, they attract one another and can form stable bound states in which they "waltz" or "minuet" around each other. A surface-mediated hydrodynamic attraction combined with lubrication forces between spinning, bottom-heavy Volvox explains the formation, stability, and dynamics of the bound states. These phenomena are suggested to underlie observed clustering of Volvox at surfaces.