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Colloids as Models Colloids are often used as analogs for atoms in order to study crystallization kinetics or glassy dynamics using particles that are much easier to observe and that move on much slower time scales. Ganapathy et al. (p. 445 ; see the Perspective by Einstein and Stasevich ) consider whether the analogous behavior extends to the growth of epitaxial films, a technique that is used in manufacturing. Controlling the rate of addition of the colloidal particles allowed the mapping of diffusional pathways during film nucleation and growth on a patterned substrate. The same relationships used to describe atomistic growth could be applied to the colloidal systems, but certain growth barriers such as those found at step edges and corners were controlled by diffusion rather than energetics.

The role of petal spurs and specialized pollinator interactions has been studied since Darwin. Aquilegia petal spurs exhibit striking size and shape diversity, correlated with specialized pollinators ranging from bees to hawkmoths in a textbook example of adaptive radiation. Despite the evolutionary significance of spur length, remarkably little is known about Aquilegia spur morphogenesis and its evolution. Using experimental measurements, both at tissue and cellular levels, combined with numerical modelling, we have investigated the relative roles of cell divisions and cell shape in determining the morphology of the Aquilegia petal spur. Contrary to decades-old hypotheses implicating a discrete meristematic zone as the driver of spur growth, we find that Aquilegia petal spurs develop via anisotropic cell expansion. Furthermore, changes in cell anisotropy account for 99 per cent of the spur-length variation in the genus, suggesting that the true evolutionary innovation underlying the rapid radiation of Aquilegia was the mechanism of tuning cell shape.

We study the primary root growth of wild-type Medicago truncatula plants in heterogeneous environments using 3D time-lapse imaging. The growth medium is a transparent hydrogel consisting of a stiff lower layer and a compliant upper layer. We find that the roots deform into a helical shape just above the gel layer interface before penetrating into the lower layer. This geometry is interpreted as a combination of growth-induced mechanical buckling modulated by the growth medium and a simultaneous twisting near the root tip. We study the helical morphology as the modulus of the upper gel layer is varied and demonstrate that the size of the deformation varies with gel stiffness as expected by a mathematical model based on the theory of buckled rods. Moreover, we show that plant-to-plant variations can be accounted for by biomechanically plausible values of the model parameters.morphogenesis | plant biomechanics | biological chirality | root growth and remodeling

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Although glassy relaxation is typically associated with disorder, here we report on a new type of glassy dynamics relating to dislocations within 2-D crystals of colloidal dimers. Previous studies have demonstrated that dislocation motion in dimer crystals is restricted by certain particle orientations. Here, we drag an optically trapped particle through such dimer crystals, creating dislocations. We find a two-stage relaxation response where initially dislocations glide until encountering particles that cage their motion. Subsequent relaxation occurs logarithmically slowly through a second process where dislocations hop between caged configurations. Finally, in simulations of sheared dimer crystals, the dislocation mean squared displacement displays a caging plateau typical of glassy dynamics. Together, these results reveal a novel glassy system within a colloidal crystal.

In heteroepitaxy, lattice mismatch between the deposited material and the underlying surface strongly affects nucleation and growth processes. The effect of mismatch is well studied in atoms with growth kinetics typically dominated by bond formation with interaction lengths on the order of one lattice spacing. In contrast, less is understood about how mismatch affects crystallization of larger particles, such as globular proteins and nanoparticles, where interparticle interaction energies are often comparable to thermal fluctuations and are short ranged, extending only a fraction of the particle size. Here, using colloidal experiments and simulations, we find particles with short-range attractive interactions form crystals on isotropically strained lattices with spacings significantly larger than the interaction length scale. By measuring the free-energy cost of dimer formation on monolayers of increasing uniaxial strain, we show the underlying mismatched substrate mediates an entropydriven attractive interaction extending well beyond the interaction length scale. Remarkably, because this interaction arises from thermal fluctuations, lowering temperature causes such substratemediated attractive crystals to dissolve. Such counterintuitive results underscore the crucial role of entropy in heteroepitaxy in this technologically important regime. Ultimately, this entropic component of lattice mismatched crystal growth could be used to develop unique methods for heterogeneous nucleation and growth of single crystals for applications ranging from protein crystallization to controlling the assembly of nanoparticles into ordered, functional superstructures. In particular, the construction of substrates with spatially modulated strain profiles would exploit this effect to direct self-assembly, whereby nucleation sites and resulting crystal morphology can be controlled directly through modifications of the substrate.thermodynamics | colloids | tunable depletion interaction C rystal growth typically initiates at surfaces where the barrier for nucleation is significantly lower than in bulk (1)(2)(3)(4)(5). If the surface is regular, lattice mismatch between the crystallizing material and the underlying substrate can strongly affect the resulting crystal morphology (6-10). In many systems of interest, including nanoparticles and globular proteins, the interparticle interactions extend only a small percent of the particle diameter (11-15). Consequently, even a small lattice mismatch should strongly frustrate particle configurations due to the competition between in-plane and substrate bonds. These effects are even more dominant at large mismatch, where particles at adjacent lattice sites are separated by distances greater than the interaction length. Overcoming these effects, however, is technologically important for many applications, including protein crystallization and assembly of photonic as well as photovoltaic devices (10,16). Experimentally, these effects are difficult to study in situ at the nanometer scale due to rap...