The battle between internal and external forces in microtubule–kinesin active fluid скачать в хорошем качестве

The battle between internal and external forces in microtubule–kinesin active fluid

In this video, we present experimental and numerical studies of how microtubule–kinesin active fluids respond to externally imposed shear under different confinement geometries. By comparing slab-like cavities, toroidal confinement, and connected toroids, we identify a common stress threshold for response and show that the nature of the response depends on confinement topology. Our results reveal two distinct mechanisms governing active fluid responses to external forcing: stress competition and stress cooperation. Chapters: 0:00 Introduction 0:53 Microtubule–kinesin active fluids 3:49 Cavity flow experiments 8:25 Flow analysis of cavity flow experiments 13:36 Estimation of the stress threshold 16:58 Microtubule network under driving 18:43 Numerical simulations 24:40 Toroidal confinement 27:10 Flow analysis of the toroidal confinement experiments 30:18 Flow reversal dynamics 33:07 Mini-cavity flow in toroidal confinement 34:02 Connected toroids experiment 35:52 Take-home messages Full publication: Dickie et al. Geometry-dependent transmission of externally imposed shear stress in confined microtubule–kinesin active fluids. Soft Matter (2026) https://doi.org/10.1039/d5sm00871a Funding: This work was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF-CBET-2045621, NSF-CBET-2227361, NSF-MRSEC-DMR-2011846, NSF-PHY-2309135).