Marine bacteria's mealtime dash is a swimming success

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Using microfluidics technology and videomicroscopy researchers at MITs Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering demonstrated that marine bacteria are able to make use of their swimming abilities to reach nutrient patches when they appear. Cr ...
Using microfluidics technology and videomicroscopy, researchers at MIT's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering demonstrated that marine bacteria are able to make use of their swimming abilities to reach nutrient patches when they appear. Credit: Roman Stocker, MIT

Goldfish in an aquarium are able to dash after food flakes at mealtime, reaching them before they sink or are eaten by other fish. Researchers at MIT recently proved that marine bacteria, the smallest creatures in the ocean, behave in a similar fashion at mealtime, using their swimming skills to reach tiny food patches that appear randomly in the ocean blue.


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