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SUMMARY:MechE Colloquium: How plants feel gravity: a granular problem
DTSTART:20200331T121500
DTEND:20200331T131500
DTSTAMP:20260610T131157Z
UID:c8987707a7db7298fc3ca85447b55e3d1f6888a4c90eaa1f2aa17804
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Prof. Olivier Pouliquen\, IUSTI Laboratory\, Aix Marseille Uni
 versity\, CNRS\nAbstract:\nA plant accidentally put in a horizontal positi
 on bends and deforms to recover a vertical position. A crucial step in thi
 s gravisensing occurs in specific cells\, the statocytes\, which contain s
 mall grains of starch. The grains being denser than the surrounding intrac
 ellular fluid\, they sediment at the bottom of the cell and form miniature
  granular piles at the bottom of the gravisensing cells. How such a sensor
  works and can detect inclination is unclear. Here\, we address this issue
  by combining experiments on biological systems at the plant scale and at 
 the cell scale and experiments on biomimetic systems. We explain how plant
  can be so sensitive to inclination using such an a priori « rudimentary"
  sensor.\n\nBio:\nOlivier Pouliquen is a CNRS director of research\, direc
 tor of the IUSTI laboratory from Aix Marseille University.\nHis favorite r
 esearch areas concern granular flows\, suspensions\, and more generally ma
 terials made of grains\, which are found in many industrial\, geophysical 
 or biological systems\, but whose behaviour is still poorly understood.
LOCATION:MED 0 1418 https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==MED%200%201418
STATUS:CANCELLED
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