Page 53 - through Clusters and Networks

Complex systems such as biological
cells, ecological communities or even
cities and companies, often display
intriguing self-organizing behaviour
such as pattern formation, emergence,
broken symmetries, and phase
transitions. While living systems are
the most striking examples of such
self-organisation, an active area of
research is to recreate self-organising
behaviour in synthetic systems.

One such example is shown here :
droplets of an oil (liquid crystal)
immersed in soap water. The droplets
generate flows spontaneously and
start swimming around. When many
swimmers start interacting with each
other, the collective behaviour
displayed by this simple system is rich
indeed, reminiscent of ant swarms or
bird flocks! Further, the material inside
the droplets is liquid crystalline and its
“Under microscopes optical properties results in beautiful
rainbows swirl around patterns and colours, very similar to
in dancing drops” the formation of rainbows when
sunlight passing through raindrops.
by Dr. Shashi Thutupalli

Dr. Shashi Thutupalli
Simon Center
NCBS-TIFR,
Bangalore

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