Large Scale Self-organization in Viscoelastic Bacterial Suspensions*

Active matter systems such as cytoskeletal filaments driven by molecular motors and suspensions of motile bacteria have drawn much attention not only because of the direct biophysical significance, but also because they serve as model systems to study non-equilibrium physics. Microscopic energy input in these systems can lead to spontaneous emergence of rich collective behaviour. Here we will present our recent discovery of large scale bacterial self-organization mediated by cell-fluid interactions in a viscoelastic environment, and will explore the potential application of the findings in active matter engineering.