The observation of polymer reptation

Abstract Direct visualization of reptating macromolecules has been achieved. The concept of reptation, which until recently had only been directly confirmed by computer simulations, is now supported by two separate experiments. In one, a few fluorescencelabeled actin filaments were directly observed in an unlabeled semi‐dilute entangled network. The Figure shows snapshots of a filament moving in the network. magnified image