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ACTIVE MATTER

Have tail, will travel

The flagella of microorganisms have provided inspiration for many synthetic devices, but they’re typically not easy to produce. A new class of swimmer makes it look simple by spontaneously growing a tail that it can whip to self-propel.

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Fig. 1: Flagellated swimmer.

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Correspondence to Sophie Ramananarivo.

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Ramananarivo, S. Have tail, will travel. Nat. Phys. 17, 987–988 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-021-01301-4

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