We show the fabrication of autonomous soft hydrogel alginate-based objects, namely fibres and beads. They have an individually programmed time delay in their response to a shared environmental stimulus and the ability to communicate when in close proximity to one another.

In this work, we demonstrate chemical communication between millimetre-sized soft hydrogel beads in an aqueous environment.

Giant polymer vesicles which have membrane-embedded catalytically active manganese oxide particles are made using dropletbased microfluidics. It is demonstrated that these colloidal particles can regulate the membrane permeability of the polymersomes upon their exposure to, and catalytic reaction with, small amounts of dissolved hydrogen peroxide. ; Web: www.bonlab.info; Tel: +44 (0)2476 574009 † Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available. See

This review highlights recent studies that investigate the structural changes and behaviour of synthetic vesicles when they are exposed to colloidal particles. We will show examples to demonstrate the power of combining particles and vesicles in generating exciting supracolloidal structures. These suprastructures have a wide range of often responsive behaviours that take advantage of both the mechanical and morphological support provided by the vesicles and the associated particles with preset functionality. This review includes applications spanning a variety of disciplines, including chemistry, biology, physics and medicine.