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SUMMARY:Hop\, skip and jump - muscles are not just for running - Professor
  Michael Ferenczi\, Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine\, Singapore
DTSTART:20140224T180000Z
DTEND:20140224T190000Z
UID:TALK46601@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Beverley Larner
DESCRIPTION:In the second half of the 19th century\, Etienne-Jules Marey\,
  a famous French physiologist devised and constructed clever instruments i
 ncorporating pressure gauges and motion sensors to investigate the dynamic
 s of movement\, such as the movement of blood in the circulation and the l
 ocomotion of Man\, horses\, birds and fish\, even zoo animals such as elep
 hants brought to his laboratory in the Bois de Boulogne in Paris. Although
  driven by scientific curiosity\, his work attracted the attention of thos
 e intent on improving the physical and emotional state of French people th
 rough 'culture physique'\, gymnastics and sports. This was a time when the
  Olympic games were revived by Pierre de Coubertin\, when military service
  became compulsory and improvements were needed to the training of soldier
 s to maximise their performance in war. Similarly industrialisation requir
 ed the optimisation of workers' movements on the factory floor. Clearly Ma
 rey's studies on fatigue and performance became highly important to the Fr
 ench state. Marey reported that movements which lowered the centre of grav
 ity were much less fatiguing than movements requiring an elevation of the 
 centre of gravity. Hence\, the study of hops\, skips and jumps\, comparing
  the take-off with the landing phases\, using ground-braking photographic 
 tricks to measure these rapid movements featured highly in his work. \n\nT
 he work of AV Hill a couple of decades later followed very much in the spi
 rit of Marey's studies\, both from the point of view of the design of new 
 instruments and for better understanding the mechanisms of locomotion\, th
 e chemistry powering movement and the limits of power and efficiency. A.V.
  Hill's work inspired my own teachers\, and I will be presenting how new i
 nstruments\, techniques and approaches at the single cell level follow on 
 from this tradition to explore the motions of the molecular motors in musc
 le\, the proteins responsible for locomotion. I shall focus in particular 
 on the peculiarities of extrinsic movement\, also known as anti-gravity mo
 vements which Marey had described as those in which the centre of gravity 
 is lowered. Marey had said that these movements  are less fatiguing. I wil
 l describe the molecular motors and show how they indeed reduce their ener
 gy use during such stretching movements\, and show that the same process c
 an occur in the heart muscle. \n
LOCATION:Bristol-Myers-Squibb Lecture theatre\, Department of Chemistry
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