Abstract:

The viscoelasticity of actin networks is probed over an extended range of frequencies using microrheology techniques, where the thermal motion of small beads in the network is measured using diffusing-wave spectroscopy. Despite large sample-to-sample variations, the data exhibit an unexpected scaling behavior and can all be collapsed onto a single master curve, indicative of a surprising universality in the elastic properties. The scaled data provide a precise measure of the average behavior of the actin networks and indicate that at high frequencies omega, the shear modulus, increases as omega(3/4).[S0031-9007(99)08465-3].

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