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Life in Fluids

Course Description

A non-calculus-based introduction to the interactions between organisms and their environment and how those interactions affect an organism's structure and function. The properties and dynamics of fluids will be developed intuitively from an organismal point of view, emphasizing bio-physical interactions and organism adaptations.

Athena Title

Life in Fluids

Prerequisite

[(BIOL 1108 or BIOL 1108H) and BIOL 1108L] or (BIOL 2108H and BIOL 2108L)

Semester Course Offered

Offered fall

Grading System

A - F (Traditional)

Student Learning Outcomes

  • On successful completion of this course, students should be able to use relevant equations to reason quantitatively about how the fluid environment affects organisms.
  • On successful completion of this course, students should be able to evaluate the scientific literature related to how the fluid environment affects organisms.
  • On successful completion of this course, students should be able to effectively communicate the scientific understanding of how fluids affects organisms to different audiences.

Topical Outline

Introduction and Overview: How does the environment an organism lives in determine its function and form? How do the properties of different fluids affect the structure and function of organisms living in them? Fundamentals of fluids: Properties of fluids and contrasting the properties of air and water (e.g., viscosity, thermal properties, etc.). Transport in and by Fluids: Diffusion through fluids. Convection. Mass transport. Challenges of living in fluids: Temperature control, buoyancy, pressure, gas exchange, finding mates, avoiding predation. Fluids in motion: Basic concepts of moving fluids – e.g., shear, vorticity, viscosity. Bernoulli flow, Stokes’ flow. Flow regimes – laminar and turbulent – the Reynolds number. Being Small in Fluids: The relationship between viscosity and size – moving in viscous fluids. Buoyancy, drag and settling. Diffusion, advection and resource acquisition – rates of diffusion to a cell. Predator-prey interactions – methods of detecting prey and predators (chemodetection, mechanodetection, passive encounter). Dispersal mechanisms – sexual vs. asexual reproduction. Being Large in Fluids: The roles of turbulence and drag. Locomotion (swimming, flying), motion at high and low Reynolds numbers. Forms of propulsion and relevant adaptations. Predator and prey detection and capture (e.g., filtration). Communication. Living in the Boundary Layer: Diffusive vs. turbulent boundary layers (e.g., microbial mats). Shear forces, bending and structural adaptations. Feeding in the boundary layer.

Syllabus

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