Science / Technology - Colloquium
Monday, November 21, 2005
4:00 PM-5:00 PM
Olin Hall
107
While most people might think that rapid movements in biological systems are limited to the muscle driven motion of animals, this is not the case. A number of plant species have developed mechanisms to quickly transfer stored elastic energy into kinetic energy. The most famous of these cases is the closing of the Venus flytrap, which happens in a timescale of less that 0.1 s. However there are a number of other plants, which have devised methods for moving even faster. We have used a high-speed video camera to capture the sub-millisecond actions of the bunchberry flower, Sphagnum moss, and a several other local plant species. Through video analysis and measurements of elastic properties we have been able to model these explosive movements whose quickness matches or exceeds any recorded motion in the animal kingdom.
Cost: free
Sponsored by: WPI Physics Department, Dr. Rafael Garcia
Suggested Audiences: College
E-mail:
garcia@wpi.edu
Phone: 508-831-5342
Last Modified: November 14, 2005 at 2:26 PM
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