Article in Nature Communications

Assist. Prof. Žiga Kos, PhD published a paper with colleques from Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology titled Symmetrically pulsating bubbles swim in an anisotropic fluid by nematodynamics in Nature Communications. Swimming at low Reynolds numbers typically requires breaking of the time-reversal symmetry and centrosymmetry of the swimming strokes. The authors show that symmetrically pulsating bubbles can swim in anisotropic fluids, where the required symmetries are broken by the fluid’s internal structure, suggesting a new possible mechanism of micropropulsion.