They're minute disruptions in the orientations of the molecules that make up solutions of liquid crystals, said Hayley Sohn, lead author of the new study. But under the microscope, these molecular deformations -- 10 of which could fill the width of a human hair -- certainly look alive. These pseudo-particles can twirl together as a group, shift their motion on a dime and even flow around obstacles when exposed to different electric currents. "By tuning that voltage, I can have them move in different directions and make them form a nice cluster where they're all stuck together. They can branch out into a chain and then come back together," said Sohn, a graduate student in the Materials Science and Engineering Program at CU Boulder.