非平衡物理学グループセミナー 2007

10月17日(水) 15:30-

発表者
和田 浩史 (京大基研)


題目(title)
Shaping Microscopic Life: Hydrodynamics matters

概要(abstract)
Swimming in a very viscous fluid like corn syrup? That must be something 
we never want to do. But this tough exercise is in fact just a normal
living for the vast majority of the organisms inhabiting the earth. For
microorganisms such as bacteria or algae, fluid mechanics is totally
different from what we know from our daily experiences. Since they are
so small, few tenth of micron-meter at most, they have to survive in the
world of very low Reynolds number, where viscous dissipation dominates
over fluid inertia. In this talk, we will first look at how different
such a world is from our intuition, along with several important physics
on the low Reynolds number hydrodynamics. Since at this length scale,
the most common form of cellular systems are the elastic filament, life
is a consequence of coupling between dissipation and elasticity. As an
example, I will talk about how Spiroplasma bacteria swim. Spiroplasma is
a tiny, helical-shaped filamentous eubacterium. Its motility is distinct
from those of many other familiar examples such as E. Coli. I will show,
comparing to recent video-microscopy observations, some recent
theoretical results on the Spiroplasma motility obtained from the
hydrodynamic study based on an elastic filament model. Its implications
for a developmental consequence in this microbiological system may also
be illustrated. 


場所
京都大学基礎物理学研究所 研究棟・講義室K206
地図 (Map)

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