Seminars and colloquia




This page provides transparencies from two lectures given at the Odense summer school on membrane physics in August 2003. The documents are in the form of PDF files and can be read by Adobe Acrobat Reader (click to download a free copy from Adobe).
Click to download the PDF file.

Sec. A - Nature's Building Code

Overview
Oldest cells
Design criteria
Rods and ropes
Biofilaments
Curtain wall construction
Lipid membranes
Membrane stability
Efficiency of construction
Summary of mechanics
Membrane adhesion
Entropic repulsion
Wrinkles

Sec. B - Inventory of designs

Introduction
Membrane bending energy
Spheres
Ellipsoids
Tubes
Coils
Networks
Growth and division
Entropy-driven division
Curvature-driven lysis

Sec. C - Evolution

Overview
Thermophiles
High temperture membranes
Energetics of cell shape
Area distributions
3.47 Ga cells
2.1 Ga cells - small cells
2.1 Ga cells - mixed colonies
2.1 Ga cells - prolates
2.1 Ga cells - dyads
Boundary thickness
Simple model for division
Area distributions
Reduced volumes
2.1 Ga cells - tubes
DNA storage

Sec. D - Extra-terrestrial cells

Introduction
Available compounds
Size vs time
Assessment index
Summary