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ACTIVE MATTER

A machine from machines

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Building spinning microrotors that self-assemble and synchronize to form a gear sounds like an impossible feat. However, it has now been achieved using only a single type of building block — a colloid that self-propels.

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Fig. 1: Self-assembled microrotors.

courtesy of Theodore Hueckel

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Correspondence to Peer Fischer.

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Fischer, P. A machine from machines. Nature Phys 14, 1072–1073 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-018-0247-0

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