Spotlight Detail
Leif Ristroph
Leif Ristroph is a graduate student with the Itai Cohen Group on Complex Matter Physics. He studies bio-locomotion—how animals move and in particular how they interact with a complex fluid flow. He uses a camera that can capture images at 100,000 frames/second, and his test subjects are fruit flies, wasps, and other insects. What is it about an insect's wing that allows insects to be so maneuverable? Because insect wings are flexible, the physics of insect flight is very complex—the wing moves the air which in turn changes the shape of the wing which changes how the wing moves the air, etc. Leif's approach to unwrapping this complexity is to study slightly different wing structures by looking at fruit flies with genetic variations. He looks at how small mutations affect the fruit flies' ability to fly. By watching whether they have to flap more or change their stroke pattern he can learn about the physics of their flight.
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