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Active fluids

The fluid mechanics of active materials, built around the idea of living systems as condensed matter made of free-energy-consuming particles, gives insight into biology and opens new directions in physics. Sriram Ramaswamy discusses the history and future of the field.

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Acknowledgements

The author thanks A. Maitra and M. Rao for stimulating conversations, and the SERB India and the Tata Education and Development Trust for support.

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Correspondence to Sriram Ramaswamy.

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The author declares no competing interests.

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Related links

Gareth Alexander (complex order): https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/physics/staff/academic/galexander/

Denis Bartolo (rolling colloid flocks): https://bartololab.com

Zvonimir Dogic (microtubule-motor active nematics): http://dogiclab.physics.ucsb.edu/

Luca Giomi (theory of active defect hydrodynamics): https://www.home.lorentz.leidenuniv.nl/giomi/

Ramin Golestanian (theory of self-phoretic motility): http://www.ds.mpg.de/lmp/

Daphne Klotsa (active fluids with inertia): https://aps.unc.edu/faculty-member/klotsa-daphne/

Ananyo Maitra (ordered active fluids): https://sites.google.com/site/nyomaitra07/home

Ayusman Sen (swimming catalytic colloids): http://research.chem.psu.edu/axsgroup/

Suraj Shankar (topology and active hydrodynamics): https://sushanka.expressions.syr.edu/

Shuang Zhou (living liquid crystals): https://www.physics.umass.edu/people/shuang-zhou

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Ramaswamy, S. Active fluids. Nat Rev Phys 1, 640–642 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42254-019-0120-9

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