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SUMMARY:Morphing and shape control:  some lessons from the motility of uni
 cellular organisms - Antonio DeSimone (SISSA)
DTSTART:20190117T090000Z
DTEND:20190117T094500Z
UID:TALK116992@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:INI IT
DESCRIPTION:Locomotion strategies employed by unicellular organism are a r
 ich source of inspiration for studying mechanisms for shape control. In fa
 ct\, in an overwhelming majority of cases\, biological locomotion can be d
 escribed as the result of the body pushing against the world\, by using sh
 ape change. Motion is then a result Newton&rsquo\;s third and second law: 
 the world reacts with a force that can be exploited by the body as a propu
 lsive force\, which puts the body into motion following the laws of mechan
 ics. Strategies employed by unicellular organisms are particularly interes
 ting because they are invisible to the naked eye\, and offer surprising ne
 w solutions to the question of how shape can be controlled.<br> <br> In re
 cent years\, we have studied locomotion and shape control in Euglena graci
 lis using a broad range of tools ranging from theoretical and computationa
 l mechanics\, to experiment and observations at the microscope\, to manufa
 cturing of prototypes. This unicellular protist is particularly intriguing
  because it can adopt different motility strategies: swimming by flagellar
  propulsion\, or crawling thanks to large amplitude shape changes of the w
 hole body (a behavior known as metaboly). We will survey our most recent f
 indings within this stream of research.<br> <br> References:<br> <br> 1. R
 ossi\, M.\, Cicconofri\, G.\, Beran\, A.\, Noselli\, G.\, DeSimone\, A.:<b
 r> Kinematics of flagellar swimming in Euglena gracilis: Helical trajector
 ies and flagellar shapes.<br> PNAS 2017<br> <br> 2. <br> Noselli\, G.\, Be
 ran\, A.\, Arroyo\, M.\, DeSimone\, A.:<br> Swimming Euglena respond to co
 nfinement with a behavioral change enabling effective crawling.<br> Nature
  Physics (to appear\, 2019)<br>
LOCATION:Seminar Room 1\, Newton Institute
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