IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v607y2022i7918d10.1038_s41586-022-04889-6.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Odd dynamics of living chiral crystals

Author

Listed:
  • Tzer Han Tan

    (Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    Harvard University
    Center for Systems Biology Dresden)

  • Alexander Mietke

    (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

  • Junang Li

    (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

  • Yuchao Chen

    (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

  • Hugh Higinbotham

    (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

  • Peter J. Foster

    (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

  • Shreyas Gokhale

    (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

  • Jörn Dunkel

    (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

  • Nikta Fakhri

    (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

Abstract

Active crystals are highly ordered structures that emerge from the self-organization of motile objects, and have been widely studied in synthetic1,2 and bacterial3,4 active matter. Whether persistent crystalline order can emerge in groups of autonomously developing multicellular organisms is currently unknown. Here we show that swimming starfish embryos spontaneously assemble into chiral crystals that span thousands of spinning organisms and persist for tens of hours. Combining experiments, theory and simulations, we demonstrate that the formation, dynamics and dissolution of these living crystals are controlled by the hydrodynamic properties and the natural development of embryos. Remarkably, living chiral crystals exhibit self-sustained chiral oscillations as well as various unconventional deformation response behaviours recently predicted for odd elastic materials5,6. Our results provide direct experimental evidence for how non-reciprocal interactions between autonomous multicellular components may facilitate non-equilibrium phases of chiral active matter.

Suggested Citation

  • Tzer Han Tan & Alexander Mietke & Junang Li & Yuchao Chen & Hugh Higinbotham & Peter J. Foster & Shreyas Gokhale & Jörn Dunkel & Nikta Fakhri, 2022. "Odd dynamics of living chiral crystals," Nature, Nature, vol. 607(7918), pages 287-293, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:607:y:2022:i:7918:d:10.1038_s41586-022-04889-6
    DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-04889-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04889-6
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41586-022-04889-6?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jing Wang & Gao Wang & Huaicheng Chen & Yanping Liu & Peilong Wang & Daming Yuan & Xingyu Ma & Xiangyu Xu & Zhengdong Cheng & Baohua Ji & Mingcheng Yang & Jianwei Shuai & Fangfu Ye & Jin Wang & Yang J, 2024. "Robo-Matter towards reconfigurable multifunctional smart materials," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-14, December.
    2. Joel W. Newbolt & Nickolas Lewis & Mathilde Bleu & Jiajie Wu & Christiana Mavroyiakoumou & Sophie Ramananarivo & Leif Ristroph, 2024. "Flow interactions lead to self-organized flight formations disrupted by self-amplifying waves," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-12, December.
    3. Alberto Dinelli & Jérémy O’Byrne & Agnese Curatolo & Yongfeng Zhao & Peter Sollich & Julien Tailleur, 2023. "Non-reciprocity across scales in active mixtures," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-10, December.
    4. Qianhong Yang & Maoqiang Jiang & Francesco Picano & Lailai Zhu, 2024. "Shaping active matter from crystalline solids to active turbulence," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-9, December.
    5. Helena Massana-Cid & Claudio Maggi & Nicoletta Gnan & Giacomo Frangipane & Roberto Di Leonardo, 2024. "Multiple temperatures and melting of a colloidal active crystal," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-9, December.
    6. Chung Wing Chan & Daihui Wu & Kaiyao Qiao & Kin Long Fong & Zhiyu Yang & Yilong Han & Rui Zhang, 2024. "Chiral active particles are sensitive reporters to environmental geometry," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-11, December.
    7. Jingjing Li & Yihan Cui & Yi-Lin Lu & Yunfei Zhang & Kaihuang Zhang & Chaonan Gu & Kaifang Wang & Yujia Liang & Chun-Sen Liu, 2023. "Programmable supramolecular chirality in non-equilibrium systems affording a multistate chiroptical switch," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-14, December.
    8. Alvin Modin & Matan Yah Zion & Paul M. Chaikin, 2023. "Hydrodynamic spin-orbit coupling in asynchronous optically driven micro-rotors," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-9, December.
    9. Solenn Riedel & Ludwig A. Hoffmann & Luca Giomi & Daniela J. Kraft, 2024. "Designing highly efficient interlocking interactions in anisotropic active particles," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-9, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:607:y:2022:i:7918:d:10.1038_s41586-022-04889-6. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.