Capillary Attraction Underlies Bacterial Collective Dynamics

Explore groundbreaking research on bacterial collective dynamics in this physics colloquium presented by Princeton University's Ned Wingreen. Delve into the fascinating world of active matter systems, focusing on the soil-dwelling bacterium Myxococcus xanthus and its remarkable collective behavior. Learn how water menisci formation around bacteria creates powerful capillary attractions between cells, driving their group dynamics. Examine a computational model that demonstrates how the competition between cell-cell capillary attraction and cell motility leads to various phases of collective behavior. Understand the significance of capillary forces in large-scale bacterial self-organization, particularly in contexts such as bacterial swarming during feeding and aggregation during starvation. Discover how this fundamental physical mechanism, inspired by da Vinci's observation that "water is the driving force of all nature," provides new insights into bacterial collective dynamics that parallel other living systems like epithelial cell populations, bird flocks, and fish schools.