Tangling of Tethered Swimmers: Interactions between Two Nematodes
Condensed Matter journal club
Tangling of Tethered Swimmers: Interactions between Two Nematodes
- Event time: 11:30am
- Event date: 10th October 2014
- Speaker: Dr Aidan Brown (School of Physics & Astronomy, University of Edinburgh)
- Location: Room 2511, James Clerk Maxwell Building (JCMB) James Clerk Maxwell Building Peter Guthrie Tait Road Edinburgh EH9 3FD GB
Event details
Abstract
The tangling of two tethered microswimming worms serving as the ends of "active strings" is investigated experimentally and modeled analytically. C. elegans nematodes of similar size are caught by their tails using micropipettes and left to swim and interact at different separations over long times. The worms are found to tangle in a reproducible and statistically predictable manner, which is modeled based on the relative motion of the worm heads. Our results provide insight into the intricate tangling interactions present in active biological systems.PRL 113 article 138101 (2014)
pdf version
Authors
Matilda Backholm, Rafael D. Schulman, William S. Ryu, Kari Dalnoki-Veress
About Condensed Matter journal club
Given the diversity of research in the CM group, chosen topics vary widely. We tend to stick to high-impact journals - Nature, Science, PNAS and PRL have been popular - but this is not prescriptive..