BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Talks.cam//talks.cam.ac.uk//
X-WR-CALNAME:Talks.cam
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY: Inversion and perversion in biomechanics: from microscopic anisot
 ropy to macroscopic chirality - Professor Alain Goriely\, University of Ox
 ford
DTSTART:20131115T143000Z
DTEND:20131115T153000Z
UID:TALK47878@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Ms Helen Gardner
DESCRIPTION:One of the fundamental problems of bio-mechanics is to underst
 and the relationship between a microscopic structure and its overall macro
 scopic responses. A paradigm for this problem is chirality. How does a rig
 ht-handed structure behaves under loads? A simple example motivated by the
  study of DNA is the extension of a right-handed spring under pure axial l
 oad. Would it rotate clockwise or counter-clockwise? Similarly\, many plan
 t structures are fibre-reinforced and the problem is to connect the chiral
 ity of the fibre with the chirality of the rotation induced by change in p
 ressure. Motivated by different biological experiments on active gels\, DN
 A \, plant cell walls\, and fungi\, I will show that biological systems\, 
 through a combination of internal stresses and nonlinear response offer ma
 ny puzzling and often counter-intuitive chiral behaviour leading to the in
 teresting possibility of perversion\, an inversion in chirality. These beh
 aviours also illustrate non-monotonic behaviour in loading a response that
  can only be found in nonlinear mechanical systems.
LOCATION:Engineering Department - **LR4**
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR