Biological fluid dynamics is a research area that applies the principles and methods of fluid mechanics to analyze flows generated by, within, or around living organisms across scales from subcellular to ecological. It investigates how fluid properties, boundary conditions, and flexible or actuated biological structures interact to determine transport, locomotion, feeding, signaling, and morphogenesis in systems such as blood circulation, ciliary flows, microorganism swimming, plant transpiration, and animal flight or swimming. The field integrates continuum mechanics, low- and high-Reynolds-number hydrodynamics, nonlinear dynamics, and computational modeling with experiments to elucidate biophysical mechanisms and to inform biomedical and bioinspired engineering applications.
Cilia are micrometer-sized biological structures that occur frequently in nature. Their characteristic high-frequency, three-dimensional beating motions (5–40 Hz) play indispensable roles inside the body.
Cell & Microbiology
Jan 14, 2026
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"The UN estimates that by 2050, common bacterial infections could kill more people than cancer," says Arnold Mathijssen, a biophysicist at the University of Pennsylvania who studies how active particles like bacteria move ...
Cell & Microbiology
Jan 12, 2026
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Scientists have uncovered a new explanation for how swimming bacteria change direction, providing fresh insight into one of biology's most intensively studied molecular machines.
Cell & Microbiology
Jan 9, 2026
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Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) hydrogel undergoes significant but precise changes in size between 20°C and 40°C, making it an excellent candidate for use in variable-size deterministic lateral displacement (DLD) array ...
Cell & Microbiology
Dec 3, 2025
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When two cells "talk" to each other, they often do so through tiny channels called electrical synapses. Unlike chemical synapses, these so-called gap junctions enable the direct exchange of information between two cells, ...
Cell & Microbiology
Dec 1, 2025
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Exceptional points (EPs) are non-Hermitian singularities where two or more eigenstates coalesce, resulting in the eigenspace collapsing in dimensionality. Over the past decade, researchers have uncovered a wealth of exotic ...
Optics & Photonics
Nov 26, 2025
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A German-French team of physicists from TU Dortmund University, University of Würzburg, and Le Mans Université has succeeded in launching shear hypersound pulses with exceptionally large amplitudes in metal halide perovskites ...
Condensed Matter
Nov 21, 2025
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Every year, 12 million people worldwide suffer a stroke; many die or are permanently impaired. Currently, drugs are administered to dissolve the thrombus that blocks the blood vessel. These drugs spread throughout the entire ...
Bio & Medicine
Nov 13, 2025
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Caltech researchers have reintroduced a classic technique to image the formation and growth of individual cells that make up biofilms, sticky masses of millions of cells that are often responsible for antibiotic-tolerant ...
Cell & Microbiology
Oct 30, 2025
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A new study into how spaceflight impacts the human brain and eyes revealed notable sex differences in brain fluid shifts, with female astronauts showing a greater reduction in fluid around the uppermost part of the brain ...
Space Exploration
Oct 29, 2025
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