CAREER: Biomechanics of Swimming: Understanding the Physics of Biology

该方案旨在将游泳力学的研究项目与生物力学的教学项目相结合，以创造一种氛围，使本科生能够就生物物理学和科学过程进行团队合作。本提案的研究方面侧重于水生动物形态和生理变化对游泳表现的影响。有争议的观点是，肌肉产生力的方式取决于它们的缩短速度，而缩短速度又决定了肌肉产生的水动力。因此，对游泳的完整分析将同时解决肌肉力和流体动力的力-速度关系。拟议的工作将用实验和理论方法来分析无尾蝌蚪的游泳行为，以攻击这种“力平衡”。蝌蚪是研究游泳性能尺度效应的理想模型系统。这些动物通过尾巴上的逆行弯曲波推动自己，表现出戏剧性的个体发育大小变化，以及一种有趣的捕食者诱导的形态变化，这似乎赋予了它们比非诱导形式更大的游泳性能优势。本研究计划将整合到教学计划中，将生物力学的实验技术带入课堂。通过演示、实验室练习和独立研究项目，学生将能够将他们所学到的知识应用到生物力学课程以及其他生物和工程课程中，以努力理解游泳成绩的物理限制和决定因素。

Jordan 9734393 This proposal is concerned with integrating a research program in the mechanics of swimming with a teaching program in biomechanics to generate an atmosphere where undergraduate students can team about the physics of biology and the processes of science. The research aspect of this proposal focuses on the swimming performance consequences of morphological and physiological variation in aquatic animals. At issue is the idea that the muscles which generate force do so in a way that depends upon their speed of shortening which in turn determines the hydrodynamic force produced by the muscle. Thus, a complete analysis of swimming would solve, simultaneously, the force-velocity relationships for both muscle and fluid-dynamic forces. The proposed work will attack this "force balance" with both experimental and theoretical approaches for analyses of swimming in anuran tadpoles. As a model system, tadpoles are ideal for studies of scale effects on swimming performance. These animals propel themselves by an retrograde bending wave on the tail, show a dramatic ontogenetic size variation, and an intriguing predator-induced morphological variation which appears to confer a swimming performance advantage over non-induced forms. This research program will be integrated into a teaching program by bringing the experimental techniques of biomechanics into the classroom. Through demonstrations, laboratory exercises and independent research projects, students will be able to apply what they have learned in their biomechanics coursework, as well as other biology and engineering courses, in an effort to understand the physical constraints and determinants of swimming performance.