Abstract
A profoundly fundamental question at the interface between physics and biology remains open: what are the minimum requirements for emergence of complex behaviour from nonliving systems? Here, we address this question and report complex behaviour of tens to thousands of colloidal nanoparticles in a system designed to be as plain as possible: the system is driven far from equilibrium by ultrafast laser pulses that create spatiotemporal temperature gradients, inducing Marangoni flow that drags particles towards aggregation; strong Brownian motion, used as source of fluctuations, opposes aggregation. Nonlinear feedback mechanisms naturally arise between flow, aggregate and Brownian motion, allowing fast external control with minimal intervention. Consequently, complex behaviour, analogous to those seen in living organisms, emerges, whereby aggregates can self-sustain, self-regulate, self-replicate, self-heal and can be transferred from one location to another, all within seconds. Aggregates can comprise only one pattern or bifurcated patterns can coexist, compete, endure or perish.
Highlights
A profoundly fundamental question at the interface between physics and biology remains open: what are the minimum requirements for emergence of complex behaviour from nonliving systems? Here, we address this question and report complex behaviour of tens to thousands of colloidal nanoparticles in a system designed to be as plain as possible: the system is driven far from equilibrium by ultrafast laser pulses that create spatiotemporal temperature gradients, inducing Marangoni flow that drags particles towards aggregation; strong Brownian motion, used as source of fluctuations, opposes aggregation
Dissipative self-assembly is a practical experimental platform to study the fundamental mechanisms of emergent complex behaviour by providing settings akin to those found in nature: far-from-equilibrium conditions[12,13,14,15,16], a time-varying external energy input[12,13,14,15,16,17], nonlinear feedback mechanisms[16,18,19,20,21,22], fast kinetics[15,16,22,23], spatiotemporal control[15,16,22,23] and a medium to efficiently dissipate the absorbed energy[12,13,14,15,16,17]
We report far-from-equilibrium self-assembly of tens to thousands of colloidal nanoparticles with fast kinetics that exhibits complex behaviour, analogous to those commonly associated with living organisms, namely, autocatalysis and selfregulation, competition and self-replication, adaptation and selfhealing and motility
Summary
Dissipative self-assembly is a practical experimental platform to study the fundamental mechanisms of emergent complex behaviour by providing settings akin to those found in nature: far-from-equilibrium conditions[12,13,14,15,16], a time-varying external energy input[12,13,14,15,16,17], nonlinear feedback mechanisms[16,18,19,20,21,22], fast kinetics[15,16,22,23], spatiotemporal control[15,16,22,23] and a medium to efficiently dissipate the absorbed energy[12,13,14,15,16,17]. We designed a simple system that brings together the essential features: nonlinearity to give rise to multiple fixed points in phase space (possibility of multiple steady states), each corresponding to a different pattern and their bifurcations[2]; positive and negative feedback to cause exponential growth of perturbations and their suppression, respectively[18,19,22]; fluctuations to spontaneously induce transitions through bifurcations[1]; and spatiotemporal gradients to drive the system far from equilibrium, whereby the spatial part allows regions with different fixed points to coexist and the temporal part leads to dynamic growth or shrinkage of these regions
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
