Colonies of choannaflagellates

How single-celled organisms navigate to oxygen

01 December 2016

A team of researchers has discovered that tiny clusters of single-celled organisms that inhabit the world’s oceans and lakes, are capable of navigating their way to oxygen.  Writing in e-Life scientists at the University of Cambridge describe how choanaflagellates, the closest relatives of animals, form small colonies that can sense a large range of concentrations of oxygen in the water. The research offers clues as to how these organisms evolved into multi-cellular ones.

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Adult Volvox spheroid containing multiple embryos

Upside down and inside out

27 April 2015

Researchers have captured the first 3D video of a living algal embryo turning itself inside out, from a sphere to a mushroom shape and back again. The results could help unravel the mechanical processes at work during a similar process in animals, which has been called the “most important time in your life.”

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Overlaid waveforms of the flagellar beating of two somatic cells of Volvox carteri held on separate glass micropipettes.

Microscopic rowing – without a cox

29 July 2014

New research shows that the whip-like appendages on many types of cells are able to synchronise their movements solely through interactions with the fluid that surrounds them.

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Soap film singularity

A new twist on soap films

23 May 2014

Soap films with complex shapes shed light on the formation of mathematical singularities, which occur in a broad range of fields.

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How sperm swim near surfaces

How sperm swim near surfaces

08 January 2013

Using high-speed microscopic imaging, Professor Raymond Goldstein's group in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics has demonstrated how the interactions of microbes such as sperm cells and algae with solid surfaces are considerably more complex than previously thought.

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