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Retrograde and Direct Wave Locomotion in a Photosensitive Self‐Oscillating Gel
Author(s) -
Ren Lin,
She Weibing,
Gao Qingyu,
Pan Changwei,
Ji Chen,
Epstein Irving R.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
angewandte chemie international edition
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.831
H-Index - 550
eISSN - 1521-3773
pISSN - 1433-7851
DOI - 10.1002/anie.201608367
Subject(s) - crawling , asymmetry , stimulus (psychology) , physics , translation (biology) , pulse (music) , traveling wave , kinetic energy , classical mechanics , mechanics , optics , chemistry , anatomy , biology , mathematics , psychology , quantum mechanics , detector , psychotherapist , mathematical analysis , biochemistry , messenger rna , gene
Crawling motion mediated by retrograde and direct waves, that is, in the opposite or the same direction, respectively, as the muscular wave that generates it, is a fundamental mode of biological locomotion, from which more complex and sophisticated locomotion modes involving outgrowths such as limbs and wings may have evolved. A detailed general description of muscular wave locomotion and its relationship with other modes of locomotion is a challenging task. We employ a model of a photosensitive self‐oscillating gel, in which chemical pulse waves and a stimulus‐responsive medium play roles analogous to nerve pulses and deformable muscles in an animal, to generate retrograde and direct waves under non‐uniform illumination. Analysis reveals that the directional locomotion arises from a force asymmetry that results in unequal translation lengths in the push and pull regions associated with a pulse wave. This asymmetry can be modulated by the kinetic parameters of the photosensitive Belousov–Zhabotinsky reaction and the performance parameters of the gel, enabling a transition between retrograde and direct wave locomotion.