Department of Mathematic, Phillips Hall, CB #3250, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3280, USA.
Integr Comp Biol. 2012 Nov;52(5):553-75. doi: 10.1093/icb/ics115. Epub 2012 Sep 16.
Recent advances in computational methods have made realistic large-scale simulations of animal locomotion possible. This has resulted in numerous mathematical and computational studies of animal movement through fluids and over substrates with the purpose of better understanding organisms' performance and improving the design of vehicles moving through air and water and on land. This work has also motivated the development of improved numerical methods and modeling techniques for animal locomotion that is characterized by the interactions of fluids, substrates, and structures. Despite the large body of recent work in this area, the application of mathematical and numerical methods to improve our understanding of organisms in the context of their environment and physiology has remained relatively unexplored. Nature has evolved a wide variety of fascinating mechanisms of locomotion that exploit the properties of complex materials and fluids, but only recently are the mathematical, computational, and robotic tools available to rigorously compare the relative advantages and disadvantages of different methods of locomotion in variable environments. Similarly, advances in computational physiology have only recently allowed investigators to explore how changes at the molecular, cellular, and tissue levels might lead to changes in performance at the organismal level. In this article, we highlight recent examples of how computational, mathematical, and experimental tools can be combined to ultimately answer the questions posed in one of the grand challenges in organismal biology: "Integrating living and physical systems."
最近，计算方法的进步使得对动物运动进行逼真的大规模模拟成为可能。这导致了许多关于动物在流体中和在基质上运动的数学和计算研究，目的是更好地理解生物的性能，并改进在空气、水和陆地中运动的车辆的设计。这项工作还推动了改进的数值方法和动物运动建模技术的发展，这些技术的特点是流体、基质和结构的相互作用。尽管最近在这一领域进行了大量的工作，但数学和数值方法在根据其环境和生理学来提高我们对生物的理解方面的应用仍然相对未被探索。大自然已经进化出了各种各样迷人的运动机制，这些机制利用了复杂材料和流体的特性，但直到最近，才出现了数学、计算和机器人工具，可以严格比较不同运动方式在不同环境中的相对优势和劣势。同样，计算生理学的进步也使得研究人员最近能够探索分子、细胞和组织层面的变化如何导致生物体层面的性能变化。在本文中，我们强调了最近的一些例子，说明如何结合使用计算、数学和实验工具，最终回答在一个生物体生物学的重大挑战中提出的问题：“整合生命和物理系统”。
