--- OA_place: publisher OA_type: hybrid PlanS_conform: '1' _id: '21721' abstract: - lang: eng text: 'Swimming bacteria move through a fluid by actuating their moving body parts. They are force-free and can be described as hydrodynamic force dipoles: pushers or pullers. This modelling description is broadly used in biological physics and active matter research, and it has successfully predicted, for example, the superfluid behaviour of suspensions of pushers or the bend instability and emergence of turbulent flows in active nematics. However, this description accounts only for the translational motion of the swimming body and neglects the effects of hydrodynamic torque dipoles, which are relevant to bacteria with rotary motor-driven flagella, such as swimming Escherichia coli. Here we show that the torque dipole of confined swimming E. coli can power the persistent rotation of symmetric discs. The torque dipole leads to a traction force on the discs, an additive mechanism that is both contactless and independent of the orientation of the bacteria. Our results indicate that the torque dipole of swimming E. coli is notable in confined geometries, which is relevant to bacterial transport through porous materials, biofilms and the development of chiral fluids.' acknowledged_ssus: - _id: NanoFab - _id: EM-Fac acknowledgement: We thank E. Krasnopeeva for help with the bacterial culture, motility and genetic engineering. We thank Q. Martinet for help with the experimental design, F. Pertl for atomic force microscopy measurements and S. Hajek for the scanning electron microscopy imaging. This project has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme (VULCAN, 101086998). The views and opinions expressed are, however, those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Council Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them. J.P. thanks the Nanofabrication and Electron Microscopy Shared Scientific Units of ISTA for support. Open access funding provided by Institute of Science and Technology (IST Austria). article_processing_charge: Yes (via OA deal) article_type: original author: - first_name: Daniel B full_name: Grober, Daniel B id: c692f879-718d-11ee-81f0-da7caa79c783 last_name: Grober - first_name: Tanumoy full_name: Dhar, Tanumoy last_name: Dhar - first_name: David full_name: Saintillan, David last_name: Saintillan - first_name: Jérémie A full_name: Palacci, Jérémie A id: 8fb92548-2b22-11eb-b7c1-a3f0d08d7c7d last_name: Palacci orcid: 0000-0002-7253-9465 citation: ama: Grober DB, Dhar T, Saintillan D, Palacci JA. The hydrodynamic torque dipole from rotary bacterial flagella powers symmetric discs. Nature Physics. 2026;22:620-627. doi:10.1038/s41567-026-03189-4 apa: Grober, D. B., Dhar, T., Saintillan, D., & Palacci, J. A. (2026). The hydrodynamic torque dipole from rotary bacterial flagella powers symmetric discs. Nature Physics. Springer Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-026-03189-4 chicago: Grober, Daniel B, Tanumoy Dhar, David Saintillan, and Jérémie A Palacci. “The Hydrodynamic Torque Dipole from Rotary Bacterial Flagella Powers Symmetric Discs.” Nature Physics. Springer Nature, 2026. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-026-03189-4. ieee: D. B. Grober, T. Dhar, D. Saintillan, and J. A. Palacci, “The hydrodynamic torque dipole from rotary bacterial flagella powers symmetric discs,” Nature Physics, vol. 22. Springer Nature, pp. 620–627, 2026. ista: Grober DB, Dhar T, Saintillan D, Palacci JA. 2026. The hydrodynamic torque dipole from rotary bacterial flagella powers symmetric discs. Nature Physics. 22, 620–627. mla: Grober, Daniel B., et al. “The Hydrodynamic Torque Dipole from Rotary Bacterial Flagella Powers Symmetric Discs.” Nature Physics, vol. 22, Springer Nature, 2026, pp. 620–27, doi:10.1038/s41567-026-03189-4. short: D.B. Grober, T. Dhar, D. Saintillan, J.A. Palacci, Nature Physics 22 (2026) 620–627. corr_author: '1' das_tickbox: '1' dataavailabilitystatement: The datasets generated and analysed during the current study are openly available via Zenodo at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15236674 (ref. 32). All data are released under the CC-BY 4.0 licence. For any further questions about data access or reuse, please contact the corresponding author. date_created: 2026-04-12T22:01:51Z date_published: 2026-04-01T00:00:00Z date_updated: 2026-07-27T12:29:45Z day: '01' ddc: - '570' - '530' department: - _id: JePa doi: 10.1038/s41567-026-03189-4 external_id: pmid: - '42006933' file: - access_level: open_access checksum: bb28ed456cdd288d97854b084dd4b2e1 content_type: application/pdf creator: dernst date_created: 2026-07-27T12:28:27Z date_updated: 2026-07-27T12:28:27Z file_id: '22429' file_name: 2026_NaturePhysics_Grober.pdf file_size: 2960392 relation: main_file success: 1 file_date_updated: 2026-07-27T12:28:27Z fulldoi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-026-03189-4 has_accepted_license: '1' intvolume: ' 22' language: - iso: eng month: '04' oa: 1 oa_version: Published Version page: 620-627 pmid: 1 project: - _id: bdac72da-d553-11ed-ba76-eae56e802b74 grant_number: '101086998' name: 'VULCAN: matter, powered from within' publication: Nature Physics publication_identifier: eissn: - 1745-2481 issn: - 1745-2473 publication_status: published publisher: Springer Nature quality_controlled: '1' researchdata_availability: yes scopus_import: '1' status: public supplementarymaterial: yes title: The hydrodynamic torque dipole from rotary bacterial flagella powers symmetric discs tmp: image: /images/cc_by.png legal_code_url: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode name: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0) short: CC BY (4.0) type: journal_article user_id: 2DF688A6-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87 volume: 22 year: '2026' ... --- OA_place: publisher OA_type: hybrid PlanS_conform: '1' _id: '19998' abstract: - lang: eng text: nspired by Richard Feynman’s 1959 lecture and the 1966 film Fantastic Voyage, the field of micro/nanorobots has evolved from science fiction to reality, with significant advancements in biomedical and environmental applications. Despite the rapid progress, the deployment of functional micro/nanorobots remains limited. This review of the technology roadmap identifies key challenges hindering their widespread use, focusing on propulsion mechanisms, fundamental theoretical aspects, collective behavior, material design, and embodied intelligence. We explore the current state of micro/nanorobot technology, with an emphasis on applications in biomedicine, environmental remediation, analytical sensing, and other industrial technological aspects. Additionally, we analyze issues related to scaling up production, commercialization, and regulatory frameworks that are crucial for transitioning from research to practical applications. We also emphasize the need for interdisciplinary collaboration to address both technical and nontechnical challenges, such as sustainability, ethics, and business considerations. Finally, we propose a roadmap for future research to accelerate the development of micro/nanorobots, positioning them as essential tools for addressing grand challenges and enhancing the quality of life. acknowledgement: 'The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the funding agencies. Martin Pumera acknowledges the financial support of Grant Agency of the Czech Republic (EXPRO: 25-15484X). Xiaohui Ju, Xia Peng and Cagatay M. Oral acknowledge ERDF/ESF project TECHSCALE (No. CZ.02.01.01/00/22_008/0004587) for financial support. Xiaohui Ju acknowledges the financial support from Czech Grant Agency GACR standard grant No. 25-15996S. Salvador Pane, Fabian Landers and Semih Sevim acknowledge funding from the European Union''s Horizon 2020 Proactive Open program under FETPROACT-EIC-05-2019 ANGIE (No. 952152) and the European Union’s Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Programme under the EVA project (GA no. 101047081).Li Zhang acknowledges funding support from the Hong Kong Research Grants Council (RGC) with grant numbers R4015-2, RFS2122-4S03, and STG1/E-401/23-N. Hamed Shahsavan acknowledges Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). Cagatay M. Oral and Hamed Shahsavan were in part funded by the WIN-CEITEC BUT Joint Seed Funding Program. Qiang He and Xiankun Lin acknowledge the National Natural Science Foundation of China (22193033, U22A20346) and Heilongjiang Provincial Key R&D Program (2022ZX02C23) for providing financial support. Il-Doo Kim acknowledges the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MSIT) (No. RS-2024-00435493). Ramin Golestanian acknowledges support from the Max Planck School Matter to Life and the MaxSynBio Consortium which are jointly funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) of Germany and the Max Planck Society. Bradley J. Nelson and Semih Sevim acknowledge funding from the Swiss National Science Foundation under SNSF-Sinergia project no. 198643. Raphael Wittkowski is funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) − 535275785. Daniel Ahmed acknowledges the support provided by the European Research Council, as part of the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement 853309, SONOBOTS) and Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) under the SNSF Project funding MINT 2022 grant agreement No. 213058. Daniel Ahmed also extends thanks to Zhiyuan Zhang, Mahmoud Medany, and Prajwal Agrawal for helpful discussions. Wei Wang acknowledges the National Natural Science Foundation of China (T2322006) and the Shenzhen Science and Technology Program (RCYX20210609103122038). Mariana Medina-Sánchez acknowledges the financial support received from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (ERC Starting Grant Nr. 853609), the HORIZON-MSCA-2022-COFUND-101126600-SmartBRAIN3, and the Grant PID2023-148899OA-I00 funded by MICIU/AEI/ 10.13039/501100011033. Maria Guix acknowledges the financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Science (grants RYC2020-945030119-I and PID2023-151682NA-I00 funded by MCIN/ AEI /10.13039/501100011033/ and FEDER) and Unidades de Excelencia María de Maeztu 2021 CEX2021-001202-M. Bahareh Behkam and Naimat Kalim Bari acknowledge support from the National Science Foundation (CBET-2318093). Naimat Kalim Bari also gratefully acknowledges financial support from the Virginia Tech Presidential Postdoctoral Fellowship. Raymond Kapral acknowledges the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. Giuseppe Battaglia, Subhadip Ghosh and Bárbara Borges Fernandes thank the European Research Council ChessTaG grant 769798 (G.B.); Ministry of Science and Innovation of Spain, Proyectos I+D+I PID2020-119914RBI00 and Proyectos I+D+I PID2023-149206OB-I00 and the Agencia de Gestión de Ayudas Universitarias y de Investigación (AGAUR) for the grant SGR 01538 and for SG fellowship (2022 BP 00214). Alexander Leshansky and Konstantin Morozov acknowledge the support of the Israel Science Foundation (ISF) via grant no. 2899/21. Alberto Escarpa and Beatriz Jurado Sánchez acknowledge support from The Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities [Grant PID2023-152298NB-I00 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and FEDER, UE (A.E, B. J. S), grant TED2021-132720B-I00, funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and the European Union “NextGenerationEU”/PRTR (A.E, B. J. S); grant CNS2023-144653 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/ 501100011033 and the European Union “NextGenerationEU”/PRTR] and Junta de Comunidades de Castilla la Mancha (grant number SBPLY/23/180225/000058). Jeremie Palacci acknowledges support from the European Union through ERC grant (VULCAN, 101086998). Josep Puigmartí-Luis acknowledges the Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI) for the María de Maeztu, project no. CEX2021-001202-M, the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (Grant No. PID2020-116612RB-C33 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033) and the Generalitat de Catalunya (2021 SGR 00270). James D. Nicholas, Jordi Ignés-Mullol, and Josep Puigmartí-Luis acknowledge support from the European Union’s Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Programme under the EVA project (GA no: 101047081). Josep Puigmartí-Luis and Jordi Ignés-Mullol acknowledge support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Proactive Open program under FETPROACT-EIC-05-2019 ANGIE (No. 952152). Jordi Ignés-Mullol also acknowledges the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (Grant No. PID2022-137713NB-C21 funded by MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033). Lauren Zarzar and Yutong Liu acknowledge support from the US Army Research Office (Grant W911NF-18-1-0414). Longqiu Li acknowledges the National Natural Science Foundation of China (52125505, U23A20637) for providing financial support. Wyatt Shields acknowledges support from the National Science Foundation (NSF) through a CAREER grant (CBET 2143419). Xing Ma acknowledges the support from Shenzhen Science and Technology Program (RCJC20231211090000001). David H. Gracias acknowledges support from the NIH-NIBIB (R01EB017742). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH. Samuel Sánchez acknowledges funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe research and innovation programmes (grants agreement No 866348, i-NanoSwarms), the CERCA program by the Generalitat de Catalunya, the project 2021 SGR 01606, and the "Centro de Excelencia Severo Ochoa" (Grant CEX2023-001282-S). Maria Jose Esplandiu acknowledges the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación of Spain (MICIN) through PID 2021-124568NB-I00 and TED2021-129898B-C21 project. Sarthak Misra and Antonio Lobosco acknowledge funding from European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (Grant Nr. 866494, project-MAESTRO). Jinxing Li acknowledges support from the National Science Foundation under Award Nos. CMMI 2323917, ECCS-2216131, ECCS 2339495, ECCS-2334134, NIH NIBIB Trailblazer R21 Award, and Henry Ford Hospital + MSU Cancer Research Pilot Award. Ze Xiong acknowledges the financial support from the International S&T Cooperation Program of Shanghai (24490710900) and the start-up grant from ShanghaiTech University (2023F0209-000-02). Yongfeng Mei acknowledges the National Natural Science Foundation of China (62375054), Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (24520750200, 24CL2900200), and Shanghai Talent Programs. Ayusman Sen thanks the National Science Foundation, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, and the Sloan Foundation for their financial support. Abdon Pena-Francesch acknowledges support from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research under award number FA9550-24-1-0185. Katherine Villa acknowledges funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (GA no. 101076680; PhotoSwim) and the support from the Spanish Ministry of Science (MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033) and the European Union (Next generation EU/PRTR) through the Ramón y Cajal grant, RYC2021-031075-I. Kang Liang acknowledges support from the Australian Research Council (DP250101401 and FT220100479) and the National Breast Cancer Foundation, Australia (IIRS-22–104). Jizhai Cui acknowledges the National Key Technologies R&D Program of China (2022YFA1207000) and Shanghai Rising-Star Program (24QA2700700). Xiang-Zhong Chen acknowledges the National Natural Science Foundation of China (52473254) and the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2023YFB35070003)' article_processing_charge: Yes (in subscription journal) article_type: review author: - first_name: Xiaohui full_name: Ju, Xiaohui last_name: Ju - first_name: Chuanrui full_name: Chen, Chuanrui last_name: Chen - first_name: Cagatay M. full_name: Oral, Cagatay M. last_name: Oral - first_name: Semih full_name: Sevim, Semih last_name: Sevim - first_name: Ramin full_name: Golestanian, Ramin last_name: Golestanian - first_name: Mengmeng full_name: Sun, Mengmeng last_name: Sun - first_name: Negin full_name: Bouzari, Negin last_name: Bouzari - first_name: Xiankun full_name: Lin, Xiankun last_name: Lin - first_name: Mario full_name: Urso, Mario last_name: Urso - first_name: Jong Seok full_name: Nam, Jong Seok last_name: Nam - first_name: Yujang full_name: Cho, Yujang last_name: Cho - first_name: Xia full_name: Peng, Xia last_name: Peng - first_name: Fabian C. full_name: Landers, Fabian C. last_name: Landers - first_name: Shihao full_name: Yang, Shihao last_name: Yang - first_name: Azin full_name: Adibi, Azin last_name: Adibi - first_name: Nahid full_name: Taz, Nahid last_name: Taz - first_name: Raphael full_name: Wittkowski, Raphael last_name: Wittkowski - first_name: Daniel full_name: Ahmed, Daniel last_name: Ahmed - first_name: Wei full_name: Wang, Wei last_name: Wang - first_name: Veronika full_name: Magdanz, Veronika last_name: Magdanz - first_name: Mariana full_name: Medina-Sánchez, Mariana last_name: Medina-Sánchez - first_name: Maria full_name: Guix, Maria last_name: Guix - first_name: Naimat full_name: Bari, Naimat last_name: Bari - first_name: Bahareh full_name: Behkam, Bahareh last_name: Behkam - first_name: Raymond full_name: Kapral, Raymond last_name: Kapral - first_name: Yaxin full_name: Huang, Yaxin last_name: Huang - first_name: Jinyao full_name: Tang, Jinyao last_name: Tang - first_name: Ben full_name: Wang, Ben last_name: Wang - first_name: Konstantin full_name: Morozov, Konstantin last_name: Morozov - first_name: Alexander full_name: Leshansky, Alexander last_name: Leshansky - first_name: Sarmad Ahmad full_name: Abbasi, Sarmad Ahmad last_name: Abbasi - first_name: Hongsoo full_name: Choi, Hongsoo last_name: Choi - first_name: Subhadip full_name: Ghosh, Subhadip last_name: Ghosh - first_name: Bárbara full_name: Borges Fernandes, Bárbara last_name: Borges Fernandes - first_name: Giuseppe full_name: Battaglia, Giuseppe last_name: Battaglia - first_name: Peer full_name: Fischer, Peer last_name: Fischer - first_name: Ambarish full_name: Ghosh, Ambarish last_name: Ghosh - first_name: Beatriz full_name: Jurado Sánchez, Beatriz last_name: Jurado Sánchez - first_name: Alberto full_name: Escarpa, Alberto last_name: Escarpa - first_name: Quentin full_name: Martinet, Quentin id: b37485a8-d343-11eb-a0e9-df8c484ef8ab last_name: Martinet orcid: 0000-0002-2916-6632 - first_name: Jérémie A full_name: Palacci, Jérémie A id: 8fb92548-2b22-11eb-b7c1-a3f0d08d7c7d last_name: Palacci orcid: 0000-0002-7253-9465 - first_name: Eric full_name: Lauga, Eric last_name: Lauga - first_name: Jeffrey full_name: Moran, Jeffrey last_name: Moran - first_name: Miguel A. full_name: Ramos-Docampo, Miguel A. last_name: Ramos-Docampo - first_name: Brigitte full_name: Städler, Brigitte last_name: Städler - first_name: Ramón Santiago full_name: Herrera Restrepo, Ramón Santiago last_name: Herrera Restrepo - first_name: Gilad full_name: Yossifon, Gilad last_name: Yossifon - first_name: James D. full_name: Nicholas, James D. last_name: Nicholas - first_name: Jordi full_name: Ignés-Mullol, Jordi last_name: Ignés-Mullol - first_name: Josep full_name: Puigmartí-Luis, Josep last_name: Puigmartí-Luis - first_name: Yutong full_name: Liu, Yutong last_name: Liu - first_name: Lauren D. full_name: Zarzar, Lauren D. last_name: Zarzar - first_name: C. Wyatt full_name: Shields, C. Wyatt last_name: Shields - first_name: Longqiu full_name: Li, Longqiu last_name: Li - first_name: Shanshan full_name: Li, Shanshan last_name: Li - first_name: Xing full_name: Ma, Xing last_name: Ma - first_name: David H. full_name: Gracias, David H. last_name: Gracias - first_name: Orlin full_name: Velev, Orlin last_name: Velev - first_name: Samuel full_name: Sánchez, Samuel last_name: Sánchez - first_name: Maria Jose full_name: Esplandiu, Maria Jose last_name: Esplandiu - first_name: Juliane full_name: Simmchen, Juliane last_name: Simmchen - first_name: Antonio full_name: Lobosco, Antonio last_name: Lobosco - first_name: Sarthak full_name: Misra, Sarthak last_name: Misra - first_name: Zhiguang full_name: Wu, Zhiguang last_name: Wu - first_name: Jinxing full_name: Li, Jinxing last_name: Li - first_name: Alexander full_name: Kuhn, Alexander last_name: Kuhn - first_name: Amir full_name: Nourhani, Amir last_name: Nourhani - first_name: Tijana full_name: Maric, Tijana last_name: Maric - first_name: Ze full_name: Xiong, Ze last_name: Xiong - first_name: Amirreza full_name: Aghakhani, Amirreza last_name: Aghakhani - first_name: Yongfeng full_name: Mei, Yongfeng last_name: Mei - first_name: Yingfeng full_name: Tu, Yingfeng last_name: Tu - first_name: Fei full_name: Peng, Fei last_name: Peng - first_name: Eric full_name: Diller, Eric last_name: Diller - first_name: Mahmut Selman full_name: Sakar, Mahmut Selman last_name: Sakar - first_name: Ayusman full_name: Sen, Ayusman last_name: Sen - first_name: Junhui full_name: Law, Junhui last_name: Law - first_name: Yu full_name: Sun, Yu last_name: Sun - first_name: Abdon full_name: Pena-Francesch, Abdon last_name: Pena-Francesch - first_name: Katherine full_name: Villa, Katherine last_name: Villa - first_name: Huaizhi full_name: Li, Huaizhi last_name: Li - first_name: Donglei Emma full_name: Fan, Donglei Emma last_name: Fan - first_name: Kang full_name: Liang, Kang last_name: Liang - first_name: Tony Jun full_name: Huang, Tony Jun last_name: Huang - first_name: Xiang-Zhong full_name: Chen, Xiang-Zhong last_name: Chen - first_name: Songsong full_name: Tang, Songsong last_name: Tang - first_name: Xueji full_name: Zhang, Xueji last_name: Zhang - first_name: Jizhai full_name: Cui, Jizhai last_name: Cui - first_name: Hong full_name: Wang, Hong last_name: Wang - first_name: Wei full_name: Gao, Wei last_name: Gao - first_name: Vineeth full_name: Kumar Bandari, Vineeth last_name: Kumar Bandari - first_name: Oliver G. full_name: Schmidt, Oliver G. last_name: Schmidt - first_name: Xianghua full_name: Wu, Xianghua last_name: Wu - first_name: Jianguo full_name: Guan, Jianguo last_name: Guan - first_name: Metin full_name: Sitti, Metin last_name: Sitti - first_name: Bradley J. full_name: Nelson, Bradley J. last_name: Nelson - first_name: Salvador full_name: Pané, Salvador last_name: Pané - first_name: Li full_name: Zhang, Li last_name: Zhang - first_name: Hamed full_name: Shahsavan, Hamed last_name: Shahsavan - first_name: Qiang full_name: He, Qiang last_name: He - first_name: Il-Doo full_name: Kim, Il-Doo last_name: Kim - first_name: Joseph full_name: Wang, Joseph last_name: Wang - first_name: Martin full_name: Pumera, Martin last_name: Pumera citation: ama: Ju X, Chen C, Oral CM, et al. Technology roadmap of micro/nanorobots. ACS Nano. 2025;19(27):24174-24334. doi:10.1021/acsnano.5c03911 apa: Ju, X., Chen, C., Oral, C. M., Sevim, S., Golestanian, R., Sun, M., … Pumera, M. (2025). Technology roadmap of micro/nanorobots. ACS Nano. American Chemical Society. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.5c03911 chicago: Ju, Xiaohui, Chuanrui Chen, Cagatay M. Oral, Semih Sevim, Ramin Golestanian, Mengmeng Sun, Negin Bouzari, et al. “Technology Roadmap of Micro/Nanorobots.” ACS Nano. American Chemical Society, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.5c03911. ieee: X. Ju et al., “Technology roadmap of micro/nanorobots,” ACS Nano, vol. 19, no. 27. American Chemical Society, pp. 24174–24334, 2025. ista: Ju X et al. 2025. Technology roadmap of micro/nanorobots. ACS Nano. 19(27), 24174–24334. mla: Ju, Xiaohui, et al. “Technology Roadmap of Micro/Nanorobots.” ACS Nano, vol. 19, no. 27, American Chemical Society, 2025, pp. 24174–334, doi:10.1021/acsnano.5c03911. short: X. Ju, C. Chen, C.M. Oral, S. Sevim, R. Golestanian, M. Sun, N. Bouzari, X. Lin, M. Urso, J.S. Nam, Y. Cho, X. Peng, F.C. Landers, S. Yang, A. Adibi, N. Taz, R. Wittkowski, D. Ahmed, W. Wang, V. Magdanz, M. Medina-Sánchez, M. Guix, N. Bari, B. Behkam, R. Kapral, Y. Huang, J. Tang, B. Wang, K. Morozov, A. Leshansky, S.A. Abbasi, H. Choi, S. Ghosh, B. Borges Fernandes, G. Battaglia, P. Fischer, A. Ghosh, B. Jurado Sánchez, A. Escarpa, Q. Martinet, J.A. Palacci, E. Lauga, J. Moran, M.A. Ramos-Docampo, B. Städler, R.S. Herrera Restrepo, G. Yossifon, J.D. Nicholas, J. Ignés-Mullol, J. Puigmartí-Luis, Y. Liu, L.D. Zarzar, C.W. Shields, L. Li, S. Li, X. Ma, D.H. Gracias, O. Velev, S. Sánchez, M.J. Esplandiu, J. Simmchen, A. Lobosco, S. Misra, Z. Wu, J. Li, A. Kuhn, A. Nourhani, T. Maric, Z. Xiong, A. Aghakhani, Y. Mei, Y. Tu, F. Peng, E. Diller, M.S. Sakar, A. Sen, J. Law, Y. Sun, A. Pena-Francesch, K. Villa, H. Li, D.E. Fan, K. Liang, T.J. Huang, X.-Z. Chen, S. Tang, X. Zhang, J. Cui, H. Wang, W. Gao, V. Kumar Bandari, O.G. Schmidt, X. Wu, J. Guan, M. Sitti, B.J. Nelson, S. Pané, L. Zhang, H. Shahsavan, Q. He, I.-D. Kim, J. Wang, M. Pumera, ACS Nano 19 (2025) 24174–24334. date_created: 2025-07-10T14:53:27Z date_published: 2025-06-27T00:00:00Z date_updated: 2025-12-30T09:07:44Z day: '27' ddc: - '540' department: - _id: JePa doi: 10.1021/acsnano.5c03911 external_id: isi: - '001519731400001' pmid: - '40577644' file: - access_level: open_access checksum: 5f6034144bf9f649ff74fed01b04aa22 content_type: application/pdf creator: dernst date_created: 2025-12-30T09:07:31Z date_updated: 2025-12-30T09:07:31Z file_id: '20901' file_name: 2025_ACSNano_Ju.pdf file_size: 11892237 relation: main_file success: 1 file_date_updated: 2025-12-30T09:07:31Z fulldoi: https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.5c03911 has_accepted_license: '1' intvolume: ' 19' isi: 1 issue: '27' language: - iso: eng month: '06' oa: 1 oa_version: Published Version page: 24174-24334 pmid: 1 project: - _id: bdac72da-d553-11ed-ba76-eae56e802b74 grant_number: '101086998' name: 'VULCAN: matter, powered from within' publication: ACS Nano publication_identifier: eissn: - 1936-086X issn: - 1936-0851 publication_status: published publisher: American Chemical Society quality_controlled: '1' scopus_import: '1' status: public title: Technology roadmap of micro/nanorobots tmp: image: /images/cc_by.png legal_code_url: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode name: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0) short: CC BY (4.0) type: journal_article user_id: 2DF688A6-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87 volume: 19 year: '2025' ... --- APC_amount: 4695,11 EUR DOAJ_listed: '1' OA_place: publisher OA_type: gold PlanS_conform: '1' _id: '20708' abstract: - lang: eng text: In equilibrium, the physical properties of matter are set by the interactions between the constituents. In contrast, the energy input of the individual components controls the behavior of synthetic or living active matter. Great progress has been made in understanding the emergent phenomena in active fluids, though their inability to resist shear forces hinders their practical use. This motivates the exploration of active solids as shape-shifting materials, yet, we lack controlled synthetic systems to devise active solids with unconventional properties. Here we build active elastic beams from dozens of active colloids and unveil complex emergent behaviors such as self-oscillations or persistent rotations. Developing tensile tests at the microscale, we show that the active beams are ultrasoft materials, with large (nonequilibrium) fluctuations. Combining experiments, theory, and stochastic inference, we show that the dynamics of the active beams can be mapped on different phase transitions which are tuned by boundary conditions. More quantitatively, we assess all relevant parameters by independent measurements or first-principles calculations, and find that our theoretical description agrees with the experimental observations. Our results demonstrate that the simple addition of activity to an elastic beam unveils novel physics and can inspire design strategies for active solids and functional microscopic machines. acknowledgement: The authors thank Andela Saric, Christoph Zechner, and Paul Robin for helpful discussions. J. P. acknowledges support by ERC grant (VULCAN, 101086998) and U.S. ARO under Award No. W911NF2310008. Y. I. L. acknowledges funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Grant Agreement No. 101034413. article_number: '041017' article_processing_charge: Yes article_type: original arxiv: 1 author: - first_name: Quentin full_name: Martinet, Quentin id: b37485a8-d343-11eb-a0e9-df8c484ef8ab last_name: Martinet orcid: 0000-0002-2916-6632 - first_name: Yuting I full_name: Li, Yuting I id: ee7a5ca8-8b71-11ed-b662-b3341c05b7eb last_name: Li - first_name: A. full_name: Aubret, A. last_name: Aubret - first_name: Edouard B full_name: Hannezo, Edouard B id: 3A9DB764-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87 last_name: Hannezo orcid: 0000-0001-6005-1561 - first_name: Jérémie A full_name: Palacci, Jérémie A id: 8fb92548-2b22-11eb-b7c1-a3f0d08d7c7d last_name: Palacci orcid: 0000-0002-7253-9465 citation: ama: Martinet Q, Li YI, Aubret A, Hannezo EB, Palacci JA. Emergent dynamics of active elastic microbeams. Physical Review X. 2025;15(4). doi:10.1103/rjk2-q2wh apa: Martinet, Q., Li, Y. I., Aubret, A., Hannezo, E. B., & Palacci, J. A. (2025). Emergent dynamics of active elastic microbeams. Physical Review X. American Physical Society. https://doi.org/10.1103/rjk2-q2wh chicago: Martinet, Quentin, Yuting I Li, A. Aubret, Edouard B Hannezo, and Jérémie A Palacci. “Emergent Dynamics of Active Elastic Microbeams.” Physical Review X. American Physical Society, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1103/rjk2-q2wh. ieee: Q. Martinet, Y. I. Li, A. Aubret, E. B. Hannezo, and J. A. Palacci, “Emergent dynamics of active elastic microbeams,” Physical Review X, vol. 15, no. 4. American Physical Society, 2025. ista: Martinet Q, Li YI, Aubret A, Hannezo EB, Palacci JA. 2025. Emergent dynamics of active elastic microbeams. Physical Review X. 15(4), 041017. mla: Martinet, Quentin, et al. “Emergent Dynamics of Active Elastic Microbeams.” Physical Review X, vol. 15, no. 4, 041017, American Physical Society, 2025, doi:10.1103/rjk2-q2wh. short: Q. Martinet, Y.I. Li, A. Aubret, E.B. Hannezo, J.A. Palacci, Physical Review X 15 (2025). corr_author: '1' date_created: 2025-11-30T23:02:08Z date_published: 2025-10-31T00:00:00Z date_updated: 2026-05-20T08:58:06Z day: '31' ddc: - '530' department: - _id: EdHa - _id: JePa doi: 10.1103/rjk2-q2wh ec_funded: 1 external_id: arxiv: - '2508.20642' file: - access_level: open_access checksum: bb64ea9f2c400205fd89e9bdd15cc850 content_type: application/pdf creator: dernst date_created: 2025-12-01T07:30:00Z date_updated: 2025-12-01T07:30:00Z file_id: '20714' file_name: 2025_PhysicalReviewX_Martinet.pdf file_size: 5902259 relation: main_file success: 1 file_date_updated: 2025-12-01T07:30:00Z fulldoi: https://doi.org/10.1103/rjk2-q2wh has_accepted_license: '1' intvolume: ' 15' issue: '4' language: - iso: eng month: '10' oa: 1 oa_version: Published Version project: - _id: bdac72da-d553-11ed-ba76-eae56e802b74 grant_number: '101086998' name: 'VULCAN: matter, powered from within' - _id: fc2ed2f7-9c52-11eb-aca3-c01059dda49c call_identifier: H2020 grant_number: '101034413' name: 'IST-BRIDGE: International postdoctoral program' publication: Physical Review X publication_identifier: eissn: - 2160-3308 publication_status: published publisher: American Physical Society quality_controlled: '1' scopus_import: '1' status: public title: Emergent dynamics of active elastic microbeams tmp: image: /images/cc_by.png legal_code_url: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode name: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0) short: CC BY (4.0) type: journal_article user_id: 2DF688A6-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87 volume: 15 year: '2025' ...