The Open-Access Journal for the Basic Principles of Diffusion Theory, Experiment and Application Surprises from single-particle imaging of passive and active diffusion

Abstract

The transport of matter and energy is fundamental in nature and biology. It can occur by passive diffusion and can also be active. Predicated on fluorescence imaging at the single-particle level, this talk describes quantitative studies of how this can happen, and presents examples of how nontrivial findings emerge from observing the rare events that underly the overall ensemble-averaged distribution. For example, in living cells, we find that transportation efficiency problems bear a provocative parallel with polymer chain trajectories with their spatial extent, and with jammed matter in their time evolution. A picture emerges in which simple experiments, performed at single-particle an