Tuesday 11th January 2011: Optimal foraging morphologies

In circumstances where an organism needs to forage for an unsensed source of food, light, advantageous position, etc. particular geometries are shown to confer evolutionary advantage. Star-shapes are optimal with the preferred number of points being directly dependent upon prey availability and relative size. Examples involving fungi, bacteria, plants and predatory starfish will be discussed in detail.

Dr Daniel Lunn is an emeritus fellow at Worcester College, Oxford.

Come along and join us at 7:30pm in Blackwells Main Bookshop, Broad Street, Oxford.
No ticket, no booking, no scientific background required.