Turbulence in bacterial cultures
Turbulent flows surround us, from complex cloud formations to rapidly flowing rivers. Populations of motile bacteria in liquid media can also exhibit patterns of collective motion that resemble turbulent flows, provided the cell density is sufficiently high. In a new study carried out by Dr. Vasil Bratanov (MPI for Plasma Physics, Garching), Professor Frank Jenko (University of California, Los Angeles) and Professor Erwin Frey, who holds the Chair of Biological and Statistical Physics at Ludwig Maximilian University, the fluid mechanics of such systems is investigated, and it is demonstrated that they exhibit a novel class of turbulent flows which is characterized by a high degree of self-organization. The results appear in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.