Dr. James Murray, Department of Biology, recently received a $5,490 grant for a study that will encode the flow direction by a simple nervous network.
According to Murray, ?The marine slug Tritonia uses microscopic flow sensors in its head to detect water flow and change the shape of its body which reduces the hydrodynamic drag and may serve as a directional cue in navigation.?
He continued, ?This research will identify the cells that sense the water flow, anticipating that artificial analogues of natural water-flow sensors could be incorporated into an ?active aeroelastic wing? such as those created by NASA, and fed into a neural network that would detect turbulence development in-flight. The measurement of turbulence and flow at the microscopic scale will enable new approaches to aeronautical design and help to create structures that measure flow during flight in real-time.?
This project will enhance the ability to do aerospace-related research by providing preliminary data for a multi-year research grant. It will enhance our research infrastructure by supplying UCA with dissection tools and supplies, and will result in the training of a student in interdisciplinary research. This will allow us to collaborate with physicists and biophysicists with expertise in modeling fluid dynamic forces at the microscopic level.
Funding for the grant was provided by the National Aeronautics and Space Agency through the Arkansas Space Grant Consortium.