CAREER: Fast, Furious and Fantastic Beasts: Integrative principles, biomechanics and physical limits of impulsive motion in ultrafast organisms

职业：《速度与激情》和《神奇动物在哪里》：超快生物体中脉冲运动的综合原理、生物力学和物理极限

• 批准号: 1941933
• 负责人: Saad Bhamla
• 金额: $ 99.44万
• 依托单位: Georgia Tech Research Corporation
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-07-01 至 2025-06-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1941933&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Fast; Furious; Fantastic; Beasts

In nature, certain small organisms can achieve ultrafast accelerations of millions of g-forces in nanoseconds. These extreme organisms exploit unusual elastic spring and latch structures to generate extraordinary amounts of power, far outperforming human-engineered robotic systems. However, how these diverse systems, from microscopic single cells to millimeter-sized spiders, generate high power and survive the tremendous forces generated during rapid motion remains unclear. To address this crucial knowledge gap, this project will combine mathematical theory, biological experiments, and physical modeling to better understand ultrafast motion in animals. Beyond advancing fundamental biomechanics, this work could contribute to development of faster, smaller, and stronger robots that use elastic power amplifiers. The project will support science training at many levels, including K-12, undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral stages. Research and training activities will broaden the participation of students from under-represented minority backgrounds in the physics of living systems. The researcher will develop a field-based invertebrate biomechanics course to bring students from many backgrounds into the rainforest to study the biophysics of ultrafast living systems. Research findings of this work will be disseminated through multiple outlets including live demonstrations at the Atlanta Zoo, bilingual comic books, and social media outlets such as YouTube and Twitter.Important gaps remain in the understanding of mechanics extreme biological spring-latch systems, which rapidly amplify power input to repeatably deliver high power at small length scales. This project will develop slingshot spiders as a new model organism for studying ultrafast motion. By storing elastic energy in an extraordinary 3-D web topology, slingshot spiders can repeatedly hurl themselves and their webs at flying insects in less than 20 milliseconds with accelerations exceeding 130g. Webs made of elastic silk actuated by hydraulically controlled legs comprise an exception springs/latch system, thus slingshot spiders are excellent models for fundamental questions concerning elastic mechanisms. Their webs and legs are ideally suited to material characterization and modelling in both lab and field environments. The principal investigator will bring high-speed instrumentation into the Peruvian Amazon to capture the ultrafast dynamics of these extreme arachnids. Combining in-situ force measurements and modeling, this research will probe fine-tuning and integration of mechanical properties of the web (spring) and hydraulic mechanics of the spider’s legs (latch) and will analyze how power amplification is maximized for a spider of a given size. This work will apply the physics of damped harmonic oscillators to reveal how slingshot webs dissipate energy and enable repetitive loading with minimum damage. By bringing low-cost, portable scientific tools to rainforests (Jungle invertebrates Biomechanics Laboratory), the project will train future scientists in invertebrate biomechanics and expand the range of potential model organisms. By developing bilingual comics (Curious Zoo of Crazy Organisms), this work will bridge language barriers in science communication to Hispanic populations.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

在自然界中，某些小生物可以在纳秒内实现数百万g力的超快加速度。这些极端的生物利用不寻常的弹性弹簧和闩锁结构来产生非凡的能量，远远超过人类工程机器人系统。然而，这些不同的系统，从微观的单细胞到毫米大小的蜘蛛，如何产生高功率并在快速运动过程中产生的巨大力量中生存下来，目前尚不清楚。 为了解决这一关键的知识差距，该项目将结合联合收割机数学理论，生物实验和物理建模，以更好地了解动物的超快运动。除了推进基本的生物力学，这项工作还有助于开发更快、更小、更强的使用弹性功率放大器的机器人。该项目将支持多层次的科学培训，包括K-12，本科，研究生和博士后阶段。研究和培训活动将扩大代表性不足的少数民族背景的学生对生命系统物理学的参与。研究人员将开发一个基于实地的无脊椎动物生物力学课程，将来自不同背景的学生带入雨林，研究超快生命系统的生物物理学。这项工作的研究成果将通过多种渠道传播，包括亚特兰大动物园的现场演示，双语漫画书以及YouTube和Twitter等社交媒体。在对极端生物弹簧闩锁系统的力学理解方面仍存在重要差距，该系统可快速放大功率输入，以在小长度尺度上重复提供高功率。本项目将开发弹弓蜘蛛作为研究超快运动的新模式生物。通过在一个非凡的三维网络拓扑结构中存储弹性能量，弹弓蜘蛛可以在不到20毫秒的时间内以超过130 g的加速度反复将自己和它们的网投掷到飞行的昆虫身上。由液压控制的腿驱动的弹性丝制成的网包括一个例外弹簧/闩锁系统，因此弹弓蜘蛛是关于弹性机制的基本问题的极好模型。它们的腹板和支腿非常适合实验室和现场环境中的材料表征和建模。首席研究员将把高速仪器带到秘鲁亚马逊地区，以捕捉这些极端蛛形纲动物的超快动力学。结合现场力测量和建模，本研究将探讨微调和蜘蛛腿（闩锁）的网（弹簧）和液压力学的机械性能的集成，并将分析如何最大化功率放大为一个给定大小的蜘蛛。这项工作将应用阻尼谐振子的物理，以揭示弹弓网如何耗散能量，并使重复加载最小的损害。通过将低成本、便携式科学工具带到雨林（丛林无脊椎动物生物力学实验室），该项目将培训未来的科学家学习无脊椎动物生物力学，并扩大潜在的模式生物的范围。通过开发双语漫画（疯狂生物的好奇动物园），这项工作将弥合语言障碍，在科学传播到西班牙裔人口。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过评估使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准的支持。

项目成果

Amorphous entangled active matter

非晶态缠结活性物质

• DOI: 10.1039/d2sm01573k
• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: Soft Matter
• 影响因子: 3.4
• 作者: Savoie, William;Tuazon, Harry;Tiwari, Ishant;Bhamla, M. Saad;Goldman, Daniel I.
• 通讯作者: Goldman, Daniel I.

Oxygenation-Controlled Collective Dynamics in Aquatic Worm Blobs

水生蠕虫斑点中氧合控制的集体动力学

• DOI: 10.1093/icb/icac089
• 发表时间: 2022
• 期刊: Integrative and Comparative Biology
• 影响因子: 2.6
• 作者: Tuazon, Harry;Kaufman, Emily;Goldman, Daniel I.;Bhamla, M. Saad
• 通讯作者: Bhamla, M. Saad

The ultrafast snap of a finger is mediated by skin friction

• DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2021.0672
• 发表时间: 2021-11-17
• 期刊: JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY INTERFACE
• 影响因子: 3.9
• 作者: Acharya, Raghav;Challita, Elio J.;Bhamla, M. Saad
• 通讯作者: Bhamla, M. Saad

Slingshot spiders build tensed, underdamped webs for ultrafast launches and speedy halts

• DOI: 10.1007/s00359-021-01475-5
• 发表时间: 2021-03-15
• 期刊: JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE PHYSIOLOGY A-NEUROETHOLOGY SENSORY NEURAL AND BEHAVIORAL PHYSIOLOGY
• 影响因子: 2.1
• 作者: Challita, Elio J.;Alexander, Symone L. M.;Bhamla, M. Saad
• 通讯作者: Bhamla, M. Saad

Emergent Collective Locomotion in an Active Polymer Model of Entangled Worm Blobs

• DOI: 10.3389/fphy.2021.734499
• 发表时间: 2021-09-30
• 期刊: FRONTIERS IN PHYSICS
• 影响因子: 3.1
• 作者: Nguyen, Chantal;Ozkan-Aydin, Yasemin;Peleg, Orit
• 通讯作者: Peleg, Orit