Abstract
We have measured the spatial distribution of motile Escherichia coli inside spherical water droplets emulsified in oil. At low cell concentrations, the cell density peaks at the water-oil interface; at increasing concentration, the bulk of each droplet fills up uniformly while the surface peak remains. Simulations and theory show that the bulk density results from a “traffic” of cells leaving the surface layer, increasingly due to cell-cell scattering as the surface coverage rises above . Our findings show similarities with the physics of a rarefied gas in a spherical cavity with attractive walls.
- Received 18 July 2014
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.113.268101
© 2014 American Physical Society