Award Abstract # 1941933
CAREER: Fast, Furious and Fantastic Beasts: Integrative principles, biomechanics and physical limits of impulsive motion in ultrafast organisms

NSF Org: IOS
Division Of Integrative Organismal Systems
Recipient: GEORGIA TECH RESEARCH CORP
Initial Amendment Date: March 16, 2020
Latest Amendment Date: May 23, 2024
Award Number: 1941933
Award Instrument: Continuing Grant
Program Manager: Miriam Ashley-Ross
mashleyr@nsf.gov
 (703)292-4997
IOS
 Division Of Integrative Organismal Systems
BIO
 Directorate for Biological Sciences
Start Date: July 1, 2020
End Date: January 31, 2026 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount: $994,387.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date: $1,025,291.00
Funds Obligated to Date: FY 2020 = $110,160.00
FY 2021 = $270,406.00

FY 2022 = $521,402.00

FY 2024 = $123,323.00
History of Investigator:
  • Saad Bhamla (Principal Investigator)
    saadb@gatech.edu
Recipient Sponsored Research Office: Georgia Tech Research Corporation
926 DALNEY ST NW
ATLANTA
GA  US  30318-6395
(404)894-4819
Sponsor Congressional District: 05
Primary Place of Performance: Georgia Tech Research Corporation
225 North Avenue
Atlanta
GA  US  30332-0002
Primary Place of Performance
Congressional District:
05
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): EMW9FC8J3HN4
Parent UEI: EMW9FC8J3HN4
NSF Program(s): Physiol Mechs & Biomechanics
Primary Program Source: 01002425DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
01002021DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT

01002122DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT

01002122DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT

01002223DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
Program Reference Code(s): 1045, 9179, 9178, 7744, 1228
Program Element Code(s): 765800
Award Agency Code: 4900
Fund Agency Code: 4900
Assistance Listing Number(s): 47.074

ABSTRACT

In nature, certain small organisms can achieve ultrafast accelerations of millions of g-forces in nanoseconds. These extreme organisms exploit unusual elastic spring and latch structures to generate extraordinary amounts of power, far outperforming human-engineered robotic systems. However, how these diverse systems, from microscopic single cells to millimeter-sized spiders, generate high power and survive the tremendous forces generated during rapid motion remains unclear. To address this crucial knowledge gap, this project will combine mathematical theory, biological experiments, and physical modeling to better understand ultrafast motion in animals. Beyond advancing fundamental biomechanics, this work could contribute to development of faster, smaller, and stronger robots that use elastic power amplifiers. The project will support science training at many levels, including K-12, undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral stages. Research and training activities will broaden the participation of students from under-represented minority backgrounds in the physics of living systems. The researcher will develop a field-based invertebrate biomechanics course to bring students from many backgrounds into the rainforest to study the biophysics of ultrafast living systems. Research findings of this work will be disseminated through multiple outlets including live demonstrations at the Atlanta Zoo, bilingual comic books, and social media outlets such as YouTube and Twitter.


Important gaps remain in the understanding of mechanics extreme biological spring-latch systems, which rapidly amplify power input to repeatably deliver high power at small length scales. This project will develop slingshot spiders as a new model organism for studying ultrafast motion. By storing elastic energy in an extraordinary 3-D web topology, slingshot spiders can repeatedly hurl themselves and their webs at flying insects in less than 20 milliseconds with accelerations exceeding 130g. Webs made of elastic silk actuated by hydraulically controlled legs comprise an exception springs/latch system, thus slingshot spiders are excellent models for fundamental questions concerning elastic mechanisms. Their webs and legs are ideally suited to material characterization and modelling in both lab and field environments. The principal investigator will bring high-speed instrumentation into the Peruvian Amazon to capture the ultrafast dynamics of these extreme arachnids. Combining in-situ force measurements and modeling, this research will probe fine-tuning and integration of mechanical properties of the web (spring) and hydraulic mechanics of the spider?s legs (latch) and will analyze how power amplification is maximized for a spider of a given size. This work will apply the physics of damped harmonic oscillators to reveal how slingshot webs dissipate energy and enable repetitive loading with minimum damage. By bringing low-cost, portable scientific tools to rainforests (Jungle invertebrates Biomechanics Laboratory), the project will train future scientists in invertebrate biomechanics and expand the range of potential model organisms. By developing bilingual comics (Curious Zoo of Crazy Organisms), this work will bridge language barriers in science communication to Hispanic populations.

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.

PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH

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(Showing: 1 - 10 of 13)
Challita, Elio J. and Sehgal, Prateek and Krugner, Rodrigo and Bhamla, M. Saad "Droplet superpropulsion in an energetically constrained insect" Nature Communications , v.14 , 2023 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-36376-5 Citation Details
Deblais, Antoine and Prathyusha, K. R. and Sinaasappel, Rosa and Tuazon, Harry and Tiwari, Ishant and Patil, Vishal P. and Bhamla, M. Saad "Worm blobs as entangled living polymers: from topological active matter to flexible soft robot collectives" Soft Matter , 2023 https://doi.org/10.1039/d3sm00542a Citation Details
Floyd, Carlos and Molines, Arthur T. and Lei, Xiangting and Honts, Jerry E. and Chang, Fred and Elting, Mary Williard and Vaikuntanathan, Suriyanarayanan and Dinner, Aaron R. and Bhamla, M. Saad "A unified model for the dynamics of ATP-independent ultrafast contraction" Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , v.120 , 2023 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2217737120 Citation Details
Kim, Soohwan and Tuazon, Harry and Ha, Nami and Tiwari, Ishant and Bhamla, Saad and Hu, David L "Flotation of aquatic worms and other hyponeuston" Interface Focus , v.15 , 2025 https://doi.org/10.1098/rsfs.2024.0057 Citation Details
Kumar, Sunny and Tiwari, Ishant and Ortega-Jimenez, Victor M and Dillman, Adler R and He, Dongjing and Hu, Yuhang and Bhamla, Saad "Reversible kink instability drives ultrafast jumping in nematodes and soft robots" Science Robotics , v.10 , 2025 https://doi.org/10.1126/scirobotics.adq3121 Citation Details
Ortega-Jimenez, Victor M and Jusufi, Ardian and Brown, Christian E and Zeng, Yu and Kumar, Sunny and Siddall, Robert and Kim, Baekgyeom and Challita, Elio J and Pavlik, Zoe and Priess, Meredith and Umhofer, Thomas and Koh, Je-Sung and Socha, John J and Du "Air-to-land transitions: from wingless animals and plant seeds to shuttlecocks and bio-inspired robots" Bioinspiration & Biomimetics , v.18 , 2023 https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-3190/acdb1c Citation Details
Patil, Vishal P. and Tuazon, Harry and Kaufman, Emily and Chakrabortty, Tuhin and Qin, David and Dunkel, Jörn and Bhamla, M. Saad "Ultrafast reversible self-assembly of living tangled matter" Science , v.380 , 2023 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.ade7759 Citation Details
Tuazon, Harry and David, Samuel and Ma, Kenneth and Bhamla, Saad "Leeches Predate on Fast-Escaping and Entangling Blackworms by Spiral Entombment" Integrative And Comparative Biology , v.64 , 2024 https://doi.org/10.1093/icb/icae118 Citation Details
Savoie, William and Tuazon, Harry and Tiwari, Ishant and Bhamla, M. Saad and Goldman, Daniel I. "Amorphous entangled active matter" Soft Matter , v.19 , 2023 https://doi.org/10.1039/D2SM01573K Citation Details
Challita, Elio J. and Bhamla, M. Saad "Unifying fluidic excretion across life from cicadas to elephants" Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , v.121 , 2024 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2317878121 Citation Details
Aiello, Brett R. and Bhamla, M. Saad and Gau, Jeff and Morris, John G. and Bomar, Kenji and da Cunha, Shashwati and Fu, Harrison and Laws, Julia and Minoguchi, Hajime and Sripathi, Manognya and Washington, Kendra and Wong, Gabriella and Shubin, Neil H. an "The origin of blinking in both mudskippers and tetrapods is linked to life on land" Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , v.120 , 2023 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2220404120 Citation Details
(Showing: 1 - 10 of 13)

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