Fire Ants Build a Raft In Two Minutes, Grubs Eat A Pizza In Two Hours
Fire Ants Build a Raft In Two Minutes, Grubs Eat A Pizza In Two Hours
- Event time: 1:00pm until 2:00pm
- Event date: 21st March 2018
- Speaker: Professor David Hu (Gerogia Institute of Technology)
- Location: Room 2511, James Clerk Maxwell Building (JCMB) James Clerk Maxwell Building Peter Guthrie Tait Road Edinburgh EH9 3FD GB
Event details
The world can be a dangerous place, especially if you are an insect. In the wetlands of Brazil, fire ants link their bodies together to build waterproof rafts. The rafts can bounce off rocks or flow around twigs, exhibiting both liquid and solid behavior from the ants rearranging their bodies. Rearrangement is also important for black soldier fly larvae, which are the dominant scavengers of animal carcasses. These grubs can eat an entire pizza in two hours. We film insects using time-lapse video, and measure their forces using rheometers and force platforms. The speed and versatility of these biological materials may provide inspiration for synthetic systems.
About Condensed Matter lunchtime seminars
This is a weekly series of informal talks given primarily by members of the institute of condensed matter and complex systems, but is also open to members of other groups and external visitors. The aim of the series is to promote discussion and learning of various topics at a level suitable to the broad background of the group. Everyone is welcome to attend..