Joan van der Waals Colloquium - Leiden Institute of Physics - Leiden University            

Luca Giomi (Lorentz Institute)

“The dynamics of sperm cooperation in a competitive environment”

The race among sperm towards the egg is fierce, but never more so than when sperm of different males compete. In the face of intense sperm competition, some species have evolved cooperation: groups of sperm bind together during their migration towards the egg and unbind and the end of their journey, just when they are about to reach the target. In this colloquium I will describe our combined theoretical and experimental efforts toward understanding this spectacular example of collective behavior among brainless motile cells.

http://wwwhome.lorentz.leidenuniv.nl/~giomi

next Joan van der Waals colloquium: 12 December  Christine Mummery, LUMC