Sonic booms in nerves and lipid membranes
Tuesday, January 20, 2015 - 09:30
in Physics & Chemistry
(Phys.org)—Neurons might not be able to send signals as fast as electrons in wires or photons in fiber, but what if they can communicate using miniature sonic booms? That would be quite a revolutionary discovery. A group of mechanical engineers at Boston University have recently found that two-dimensional shock waves reminiscent of propagating spikes in nerves can be induced in monolayer lipid membranes. Their fascinating results, which have been sitting on the Arxiv server since November, have just been approved for publication in an upcoming issue of Physical Review E.