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The Geometry of Microswimming
Applied Math| Speaker: | Kurt Ehlers, Truckee Meadows Community College |
| Location: | 1147 MSB |
| Start time: | Fri, Apr 20 2007, 12:10PM |
Description
Swimming microorganisms navigate an environment dominated by viscous
drag and Brownian motion. Many macroscopic swimming strategies do not apply in
the microscopic world. I will describe a geometrical framework for the
self-propulsion of a microorganism through a viscous fluid. The model which
also applies to many under-actuated control systems (falling cats for example)
was first introduced by physicists A. Shapere and F. Wilczek. I will use this
model to give quantitative and qualitative descriptions of some strategies for
self-propulsion found in nature.