
Biophysics: Common concepts for bacterial collectives
Cite this article as: eLife 2019;8:e47019
doi: 10.7554/eLife.47019
Figures
Figure 1

Biofilms and swarms are similar in many ways.
Illustration showing a biofilm (right) made of bacteria (green shapes) and extracellular matrix (gray) looking at itself in a mirror and seeing a swarm of bacteria, where different colors indicate groups of cells that are moving together in the same direction. Srinivasan et al. have shown that the spreading dynamics of swarms and biofilms at the macroscopic level can be described by a single biophysical theory. Illustration by Noémie Matthey.
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