SCIENCE - It's alive! Scientists combine liquid crystals and living bacteria

(Phys.org) —The prospect of integrated living organisms into a non-living substrate has long held a compelling appeal for those investigating active matter – the study of a type of easily-deformable out of equilibrium soft matter that focuses on the properties of assemblages of self-propelled interacting particles, and an important physical model of living systems. Recently, scientists at Kent State University, Argonne National Laboratory and Nor ...

http://phys.org/news/2014-01-alive-scientists-combine-liquid-crystals.