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Active composite materials

Active composites obtained by merging   a   conventional   soft   matter actin    gel    with    energy    consuming microtubule   bundles   that   generate active   stresses   leads   to   emergent properties not present in the individual systems.  Here,  the  system  exhibits coherent     large     scale     self-driven oscillations, which neither the actin gel nor  microtubule  bundles  will  do  on their  own.  The  Center  will  exploit  this phenomena  to  build  autonomous  soft robots with lifelike attributes.