Mathematics

We will discuss the mechanical bases of biological locomotion by swimming and crawling. We will start by recalling the basic equations for the dynamics of deforming elastic bodies and newtonian fluids. We will then concentrate on the description of swimming of micro-organism, of crawling of earthworms and snails, of crawling of cells and cell colonies. Finally, we will discuss the problem of replicating the observed motility strategies in artificial, bio-inspired devices.