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bstract: Light has been used for a long time as mechanical tools, like knives or scissors. However, its reach extended to the controlled manipulation of microparticles mainly after the advent of optical tweezers. Here, I will present our recent work using optical tweezers, light-activated microparticles, and photo-lithography techniques to understand the force generation in confined active fluids. We have experimentally demonstrated that the force exerted by a bath of active particles onto a passive probe is - up to a factor - directly related to the averaged density distribution of active particles around the probe. |