CPM Seminar

Nature is frugal in selecting the materials needed for the mechanical functioning of biological cells. For example, the membrane enclosing a red blood cell is a single fluid sheet about 5 nm thick, yet the cell can withstand the intense deformations of passage through a capillary of the order of 105 times during its 120-day lifetime. Just how close to mechanical failure does Nature drive the components of a cell? After introducing the structure of cells, we show in this talk how the stability limits of cells are related to

• the fractal nature of holes in fluid sheets
• the existence of rigid clusters in networks.

Wednesday, April 15th, 15:30
Ernest Rutherford Physics Building, Boardroom (room 105)