The springtime emergence of vast swarms of cicadas can be explained by a mathematical model of collective decision-making with similarities to models describing stock market crashes.
The swirling currents occur when the rodlike structures that extend inward from the cells’ membranes bend in tandem, like stalks of wheat caught in a strong breeze, according to a study from the University of Cambridge and the Flatiron Institute.
Research explains how a unicellular marine organism generates light as a response to mechanical stimulation, lighting up breaking waves at night.
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.
Species of single-celled algae use whip-like appendages called flagella to coordinate their movements and achieve a remarkable diversity of swimming gaits.
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.”
Soap films with complex shapes shed light on the formation of mathematical singularities, which occur in a broad range of fields.
New research provides the first mathematical understanding of the shape of a ponytail and could have implications for the textile industry, computer animation and personal care products.
Scientists at Cambridge University have discovered that freshwater algae can form stable groupings in which they dance around each other, miraculously held together only by the fluid flows they create. Their research was published today in the journal Physical Review Letters
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