electric fields tagged posts

In a new study in Physical Review Letters, scientists have demonstrated a method to control artificial microswimmers using electric fields and fluid flow. These microscopic droplets could pave the way for targeted drug delivery and microrobotics.

In the natural world, biological swimmers, like algae and bacteria, can change their direction of movement (or swimming) in response to an external stimulus, like light or electricity. The ability of biological swimmers to change directions in response to electrical fields is known as electrotaxis.

Artificial swimmers that can respond to external stimuli can be extremely helpful for targeted drug delivery applications. In this study, researchers chose to model artificial swimmers that respond to electric fields.

Phys...

A research team has found the first actual “sensor mechanism” that allows a living cell detect an electric field (stock image). Credit: © Sergey Nivens / Fotolia

A variety of animals are able to sense and react to electric fields, and living human cells will move along an electric field, eg in wound healing. Now researchers have found the first actual ‘sensor mechanism’ that allows a living cell detect an electric field.

“We believe there are several types of sensing mechanisms, and none of them are known. We now provide experimental evidence to suggest one which has not been even hypothesized before, a 2-molecule sensing mechanism,” Zhao said.

Zhao and colleagues have been studying these “electric senses” in cells from both larger animals (fish skin cells, human cell lines) and in the so...