Crowding limits relative bacterial surface accumulation with density-induced effective heating.

Crowding of microswimming bacteria near walls weakens surface accumulation by boosting orientational fluctuations that increase effective rotational diffusion and promote wall escape.

• Why it matters: Cell-cell interactions in crowded settings like the human gut may be as important as hydrodynamics, yet their impact on wall accumulation is not well understood.
• What they did: The authors analyzed entrapped cell tracks to quantify how density changes orientational fluctuations, then used a minimal model to map the collective effect to an effective temperature increase.
• The result: The findings indicate crowding is linked to higher effective rotational diffusion and easier wall escape, implying density can be treated as an effective heating mechanism.

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