Data-driven quantitative modeling of bacterial active nematics

Active matter comprises individual units that convert energy into mechanical motion. In many examples, such as bacterial systems and biofilament assays, constituent units are elongated and can give rise to local nematic orientational order. Such `active nematics' systems have attracted much attention from both theorists and experimentalists. However, despite intense research efforts, data-driven quantitative modeling has not been achieved, a situation mainly due to the lack of systematic experim...