Raimo Hartmann

Minireview Wolfgang J. Parak Corresponding Author E-mail address: wolfgang.parak@uni-hamburg.de Universitat Hamburg Department Physik, CHyN, LURUPER CHAUSSEE 149, 22607 Hamburg, GERMANY Search for more papers by this author PDF PDF Share Abstract There is a large number of 2‐dimensional static in vitro studies about the uptake of colloidal nano‐ and microparticles, which has been published in the last decade.

Abstract Bacterial cells in nature are frequently exposed to changes in their chemical environment1,2. The response mechanisms of isolated cells to such stimuli have been investigated in great detail. By contrast, little is known about the emergent multicellular responses to environmental changes, such as antibiotic exposure3,4,5,6,7, which may hold the key to understanding the structure and functions of the most common type of bacterial communities: biofilms.

Significance Most living systems, from individual cells to tissues and swarms, display collective self-organization on length scales that are much larger than those of the individual units that drive this organization. A fundamental challenge is to understand how properties of microscopic components determine macroscopic, multicellular biological function.