Growing bacteria line up single-file, then buckle in liquid crystals

When scientists study bacteria that are not in a Petri dish or a test tube but in environments that more closely mimic their actual microbial habitats, they often find delightfully unexpected behaviors. For Sujit Datta, a professor of chemical engineering, bioengineering and biophysics at Caltech, those oddities are an invitation to apply physics to exciting new puzzles.

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