{"id":391056,"date":"2025-09-02T05:00:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T05:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/391056\/"},"modified":"2025-09-02T05:00:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T05:00:11","slug":"scientists-discover-limits-to-information-erasure-in-viscous-fluids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/391056\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists discover limits to information erasure in viscous fluids"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Microscale<\/p>\n

In viscous fluids like honey, where turbulence is absent, true mixing is challenging as it requires an interplay of external stirring and molecular-level noise. Credit: MPI-DS, LMP<\/p>\n

In turbulent fluids, mixing of the components happens easily. However, in more viscous fluids such as those enclosed within cellular compartments, the intermixing of particles and molecules is much more challenging. As time also plays a role in such systems, the slow mixing by molecular movement is typically not sufficient and efficient stirring strategies are thus required to maintain functionality.<\/p>\n

In the department of Living Matter Physics at MPI-DS, scientists investigated the universal physical principles underlying such mixing dynamics. They identified protocols<\/a> that allow for the optimal mixing of the system when energetic costs or fluid motion<\/a> are limiting factors. The paper is published<\/a> in the journal Physical Review Letters.<\/p>\n

“We found that the most effective stirring strategies<\/a> share a universal structure and are symmetric in time,” says Luca Cocconi, first author of the study. “These optimal protocols reveal a fundamental limit on how efficiently information\u2014for example about the identity and position of particles\u2014can be erased in such systems.”<\/p>\n

“We could derive explicit results without resorting to simulations,” explains Andrej Vilfan, last author of the study. “This is remarkable since such optimization problems are often not solvable analytically.”<\/p>\n

Overall, the study deepens the understanding of mixing dynamics in both cellular and in microfluidic systems. At the same time, it provides a theoretical framework<\/a> to design efficient mixing strategies in engineering at the microscale.<\/p>\n

More information:<\/strong>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLuca Cocconi et al, Information-Optimal Mixing at Low Reynolds Number, Physical Review Letters (2025). DOI: 10.1103\/cl9m-cmhb<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tProvided by
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMax Planck Society<\/a>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCitation<\/strong>:
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMicroscale mixing without turbulence: Scientists discover limits to information erasure in viscous fluids (2025, September 1)
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tretrieved 2 September 2025
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tfrom https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2025-09-microscale-turbulence-scientists-limits-erasure.html\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In viscous fluids like honey, where turbulence is absent, true mixing is challenging as it requires an interplay…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":391057,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3845],"tags":[75,76,74,71,70,72,53,73,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-391056","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-physics","8":"tag-materials","9":"tag-nanotech","10":"tag-physics","11":"tag-physics-news","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-science-news","14":"tag-technology","15":"tag-technology-news","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115132945160657714","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=391056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}