ArticleNature communications2016
Phototaxis of synthetic microswimmers in optical landscapes.
Article in Nature communications, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 62 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
62 citing papers in PubMed, 280 citations in OpenAlex.
- AI-assisted optoelectrokinetic control of active self-propelling micromotors for independent navigation with multimode motions.Science advances · 2026Article
- Soft Colloidal Robots: Magnetically Guided Liquid Crystal Torons for Targeted Micro-Cargo Delivery.Small (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany) · 2026Article
- Active Particles in Tunable Compressible Environments.Small science · 2026Article
- Artificial chemotaxis in micro/nanomotors.Nature communications · 2026Review
- Algal optics.Physical review. E · 2026Article
- Reservoir computing from collective dynamics of active colloidal oscillators.Communications AI & computing · 2026Article
- Directional flows using capillary assembly of photo-deformable colloidal particles at water-air interfaces.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Tunable colloidal swarmalators with hydrodynamic coupling.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Light-driven micro/nanobots.Nanophotonics (Berlin, Germany) · 2025Review
- Density Modulations in Active Colloidal Systems through Orthogonal Propulsion Control and Sensory Delays.ACS nano · 2025Article
- Interactions Between Active Matters and Endogenous Fields.Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) · 2025Review
- Dynamics of Pulsed-Laser Interaction with Janus Particles.ACS photonics · 2025Article
- Swarm Autonomy: From Agent Functionalization to Machine Intelligence.Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) · 2025Review
- Light-dependent switching between two flagellar beating states selects versatile phototaxis strategies in microswimmers.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Buoyancy-driven attraction of active droplets.Journal of fluid mechanics · 2024Article
- Recent Advancements in Nanophotonics for Optofluidics.Advances in physics: X · 2024Article
- Mechanochemical active ratchet.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Collective foraging of active particles trained by reinforcement learning.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Light, Matter, Action: Shining Light on Active Matter.ACS photonics · 2023Review
- Evanescent field trapping and propulsion of Janus particles along optical nanofibers.Nature communications · 2023Article
2 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Many microorganisms, with phytoplankton and zooplankton as prominent examples, display phototactic behaviour, that is, the ability to perform directed motion within a light gradient. Here we experimentally demonstrate that sensing of light gradients can also be achieved in a system of synthetic photo-activated microparticles being exposed to an inhomogeneous laser field. We observe a strong orientational response of the particles because of diffusiophoretic torques, which in combination with an intensity-dependent particle motility eventually leads to phototaxis. Since the aligning torques saturate at high gradients, a strongly rectified particle motion is found even in periodic asymmetric intensity landscapes. Our results are in excellent agreement with numerical simulations of a minimal model and should similarly apply to other particle propulsion mechanisms. Because light fields can be easily adjusted in space and time, this also allows to extend our approach to dynamical environments.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.