Professor Howard Berg
March 14th, 4:30pm
Barus and Holley 166

"Some Physics that E.Coli Knows"

• Room 168
• Barus Holley Lobby

Abstract
Flagellated bacteria swim by rotating long, thin, helical filaments that arise at different points on the cell surface.  Each filament is driven at its base by a rotary motor only 45 nm in diameter made from about 20 different kinds of parts.  Control of the direction of rotation of such motors is the basis for the chemotactic response, i.e., for the ability of cells to swim up spatial gradients of chemical attractants.  I will review the history of this subject, tell you about the motion of E. coli   (a bacterium that lives in your gut), and describe some of the machinery that E. coli has invented to behave in a purposeful manner.  Cells of this size know nothing about inertia or bulk flow but are masters of viscosity and diffusion.  They anticipated Einstein's work on Brownian motion by more than a billion years!

http://www.physics2005.org/

There is limited seating!
Room 166 has 180 seats.
Room 168 has 150 seats.
The lobby will be standing room.