By stealing a trick from bacteria, tiny human-made vehicles can cruise through goo.
Researchers in Germany have designed metal and glass micropropellers that travel through mucus in part by liquefying their thick surroundings. The propellers mimic the activity of ulcer-causing bacteria, and could help inform the design of microbots or drug delivery systems, the scientists report online December 11 in Science Advances.
“It’s a really nice example of this concept of bioinspired engineering: taking what’s sort of a clever biophysical strategy from nature for overcoming a challenge,” says biophysicist Jonathan Celli of the University of Massachusetts Boston.