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I will discuss our recent work (Physical Review Letters, 2012 and
Nature Scientific Reports, 2013) on hydrodynamic flows generated at the
microscale due to the conversion of chemical energy to mechanical work. Such
flows can both translate and rotate objects at low Reynolds number. Thus
they can serve as useful models for both swimming micro-organisms and
synthetic machines capable of self-propulsion in viscous fluids. We will
present a minimal model for a filament that shows remarkable life-like
motion reminiscent of cilia and flagella. This polymer can be used as a
propulsion engine at microscale. |