It's alive! Scientists combine liquid crystals and living bacteria
(Phys.org) —The prospect of integrated living organisms into a non-living substrate has long held a compelling appeal for those investigating active matter – the study of a type of easily-deformable out of equilibrium soft matter that focuses on the properties of assemblages of self-propelled interacting particles, and an important physical model of living systems. Recently, scientists at Kent State University, Argonne National Laboratory and Northwestern University have proposed the living liquid crystal (LLC) – a new class of active matter with motile rod-shaped bacteria placed in a water-based nontoxic lyotropic liquid crystal (LC) environment. The researchers found that the novel material displays a wide range of useful and occasionally surprising properties that lend themselves to a wide array of potential biosensing, biomedical, submicrometer, autonomous microprobe, and structural imaging applications.