Active matter

However, a great deal of current experimental work is devoted to synthetic systems such as artificial self-propelled particles.

[11] Research in active matter combines analytical techniques, numerical simulations and experiments.

Notable analytical approaches include hydrodynamics,[12] kinetic theory, and non-equilibrium statistical physics.

[12] Experiments on biological systems extend over a wide range of scales, including animal groups (e.g., bird flocks,[16] mammalian herds, fish schools and insect swarms[17]), bacterial colonies, cellular tissues (e.g. epithelial tissue layers,[18] cancer growth and embryogenesis), cytoskeleton components (e.g., in vitro motility assays, actin-myosin networks and molecular-motor driven filaments[19]).

Experiments on synthetic systems include self-propelled colloids (e.g., phoretically propelled particles[8][20]), driven granular matter (e.g. vibrated monolayers[21]), swarming robots and Quinke rotators.