Session ML: Bio-Fluids: Wakes and Mixing II
8:00 AM–10:10 AM, Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Room: 103A
Chair: F. Javier Diez, Rutgers University
Abstract ID: BAPS.2008.DFD.ML.2
Abstract: ML.00002 : Flows generated by bacteria settled upon a solid surface
8:13 AM–8:26 AM
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Abstract 
Authors:
Luis Cisneros
(University of Arizona)
John Kessler
(University of Arizona)
Ricardo Ortiz
(Tulane University)
Ricardo Cortez
(Tulane University)
Martin Bees
(University of Glasgow)
Free-swimming Bacillus subtilis are propelled by rotating helical flagella distributed over the the cell body surface. Rearward-oriented coherent bundles of these organelles propel the organisms forward. This directional polarity is a dynamically self-organized aspect of swimming. A swimming cell generates only local disturbance of the fluid. But, when such a cell settles on a surface, the cell body becoming immobile, the flagella adopt bi-polar ordering, inferred from the production of a circulating ($\sim$10 $\mu$m $\sim$10 cell diameters) flow. Such flows can be significant for cell-cell communication and the transport of small molecules involved in metabolism or larger ones involved in the local synthesis of biofilms. Experimental results and associated mathematical models provide cross-validation for this remarkable discovery.
To cite this abstract, use the following reference: http://meetings.aps.org/link/BAPS.2008.DFD.ML.2