CAREER: Getting to the Point: Exploring How Energetics Influences the Evolution of Biological Puncture Systems Across Phyla

University Of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign, Urbana IL

Investigators

Abstract

Anyone who has had a bee sting or pricked their finger on a rose thorn is familiar with biological puncture. The objective of this research is to understand what makes biological puncturing tools (fangs, spines, stingers, etc.) so effective. To do this, the project will: 1) study how much energy different biological tools use to puncture tissue, and 2) see how energy use has influenced the evolutionary history of puncturing tool design in various living groups. To accomplish these goals, the research will combine experiments with mathematical analyses, and show how a fang, spine or stinger’s shape, along with how it is moved, interacts with the nature of the material that is punctured to produce specific kinds and amounts of damage. These data will be used to understand how energy flows during puncture and uncover how puncturing ability evolved in snakes, wasps, and cacti. Improved knowledge of the effectiveness of puncture in nature will facilitate advances in robotics and biomedical technology, such as developing puncture resistance in soft robots and better understanding of how biological tissue is damaged during traumatic impacts. The researchers will train undergraduate and graduate students, and develop a suite of educational modules in partnership with local teachers that will be disseminated across the country. These materials will integrate natural and applied sciences and will include lesson plans and resources aimed at a range of educational levels. Lesson plans will not require expensive materials, and will be translated into several languages. Puncture is a widespread mechanism of both defense and attack in the biological realm, with examples found in many phyla, spanning orders of magnitude in scale. This research will examine how the physical principles underlying performance influence the function and evolution of biological puncture systems. The diversity of these systems allows exploration of how organisms that differ in scale, structure and kinematics have evolved to overcome common mechanical challenges. Examining commonalities across systems also gives insight into the physical laws that underlie those challenges. This research will employ a combination of experimental data collection and comparative analyses to achieve two aims: 1) controlled experimental analyses will establish a set of energy balance equations that model how morphological, material and kinematic variables influence biologically-relevant puncture mechanics, and 2) comparative analyses using the models will explore the evolution of puncture mechanics in venomous snakes, parasitoid wasps and cacti. Results of these analyses will be used to identify common principles that underlie the evolution of multiple mechanical puncture systems, and thus give insight into how physics influences the evolutionary rules of life. This program will create a framework that can be used by others for a broad range of topics, including identifying kinematic performance variables of particular adaptive value in prey capture systems; examining the role of rate-dependency in biological materials on tissue damage during high impact; and developing fracture resistant materials for soft robotics. This framework will also be used to develop adaptable teaching modules aimed at a range of educational levels. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.