Bacterial Disco Lights: Using light to control the movement and arrangement of cyanobacteria to form liquid crystalline active matter
This collaboration, between a bacterial biochemist and a condensed-matter physicist, uses light to control the movement and arrangement of cyanobacteria, forming two- and three-dimensional nematic liquid crystalline states that could provide significant opportunities to regulate the behavior of the bacterial systems and open up new areas in bio-manufacturing that use carbon dioxide as the feedstock for the production of oxygen, biofuels, or biomaterials. Read more here in Nature or on the RASEI website.