Anisotropy in the Natural Environment

各向异性是方向相关的性质，与各向同性相反，各向异性意味着在所有方向上的均匀性。各向异性存在于整个物理世界中，可能是材料科学中最常见的，但各向异性也经常以多种方式出现在自然界中。其中一个例子包括？活跃的液体吗?系统。在这样的系统中，有活跃的生物体，它们受到周围流体流动的影响，但关键的是，它们也影响着流体流动。当生物是各向异性的（通常是这种情况），这样一个系统的模型必须包括这些因素，细菌的模型，甚至更大的生物，如鱼，在过去的几年里已经开始开发，以检查这些系统中的秩序，自组织和模式形成。本提案旨在利用液晶系统的理论建模技术来考虑自然界的许多不同领域，并考虑各向异性对重要海洋细菌和大型鱼类组织行为的影响。这些模型将提供关于在改变的环境中的行为的重要信息，例如人造结构（即海上风力、波浪和潮汐能发电装置），并可以为未来的开发商和政府政策提供信息。

Anisotropy is the property of being directionally dependent, as opposed to isotropy, which implies uniformity in all directions. Anisotropy occurs throughout the physical world and is perhaps most commonly encountered in material science but anisotropy also often occurs in nature in a number of ways. One example of this includes ?active fluid? systems. In such systems there are active organisms which are influenced by the flow of fluid around them but, crucially, also influence the flow. When the organisms are anisotropic (as is often the case) a model of such a system must include these factors, and models of bacteria and even larger organisms such as fish have started to be developed over the last few years in order to examine the order, self-organisation and pattern formation within these systems. This proposal aims to use techniques from the theoretical modelling of liquid crystal systems to consider a number of different areas of the natural world and to consider the effect of anisotropy on the behaviour of important marine bacteria and larger organisations of fish. These models will provide important information on behaviour in altered environments, such as where man-made structures (i.e. sea-based wind, wave and tidal energy generation devices) and can inform developers and governmental policy in the future.