title: Dynamic force patterns of an undulatory microswimmer.
abstract: We probe the viscous forces involved in the undulatory swimming of the model organism C. elegans. Using micropipette deflection, we attain direct measurements of lateral and propulsive forces produced in response to the motion of the worm. We observe excellent agreement of the results with resistive force theory, through which we determine the drag coefficients of this organism. The drag coefficients are in accordance with theoretical predictions. Using a simple scaling argument, we obtain a relationship between the size of the worm and the forces that we measure, which well describes our data.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy and The Brockhouse Institute for Materials Research, McMaster University, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada L8S 4M1.
authors.forename: Rafael D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Schulman
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy and The Brockhouse Institute for Materials Research, McMaster University, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada L8S 4M1.
authors.forename: Matilda
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Backholm
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Toronto, 60 St. George Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 1A7.
authors.forename: William S
authors.initials: WS
authors.lastname: Ryu
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy and The Brockhouse Institute for Materials Research, McMaster University, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada L8S 4M1 and Laboratoire de Physico-Chimie Théorique, UMR CNRS Gulliver 7083, ESPCI, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Kari
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Dalnoki-Veress
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001683:Biological Clocks / Q000502:physiology*; D049628:Body Size / Q000502:physiology*; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000502:physiology*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D017276:Friction / Q000502:physiology; D057446:Hydrodynamics; D044085:Microfluidics / Q000379:methods*; D008954:Models, Biological; D033081:Shear Strength / Q000502:physiology; D013314:Stress, Mechanical; D013550:Swimming / Q000502:physiology*; D014783:Viscosity