Why sperm doesn’t have fins

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• Alex Chamolly
• Sunday 24 February 2019, 14:05-14:40
• Winstanley Lecture Theatre, Trinity College.

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Have you never wondered? Alright, I forgive you. But, if you somehow did produce sperm with fins you’d soon realise that it’s actually an existential question — literally — as with such equipment you’d never have come to be. Lacking inertia, the physics of fluids on the microscale is vastly different from our everyday experience, and so sperm, bacteria and other microswimmers had to develop unique strategies to survive. I will present some surprising theorems, highlight how nature has adapted in response to them and how they challenge current designs for artificial microrobots. Expect wet jokes and dry puns.

This talk is part of the Trinity Mathematical Society series.

This talk is included in these lists:

• Guy Emerson's list
• Trinity Mathematical Society
• Winstanley Lecture Theatre, Trinity College
• bld31

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