Steven Vogel
Research Professor

919-684-3791, 919-660-7372

034 Bio Sci

Research Interests: Life in moving fluids

Steven Vogel's projects mainly ask how the structural arrangements of organisms reflect adaptation to the mechanics of moving fluids. He has worked on such things as the design of fly wings for producing lift and of moth antennae for transmitting air, on the form of leaves in relation to convective cooling in very low winds and to drag-reducing reconfigurations in very high winds, on energy extraction from velocity gradients to improve filtration in sponges and to ventilate deep terrestrial burrows, and on the use of flow-induced subambient pressure to refill pulse-jetting scallops and squid. In addition, he is interested in the problems of written communication of science.

Current projects: Essays and books on topics in comparative biomechanics, Co-editor, www.sicb.org/dl/ teaching materials for comparative biomechanics

Representative Publications   (More Publications)   (search)

1. S. Vogel, Comparative Biomechanics: Life's Physical World (2003), Princeton University Press (580 pp.) .
2. S. Vogel, Prime Mover: A Natural History of Muscle (2001), W. W. Norton and Co. (370 pp.) .
3. S. Vogel, Cats' Paws and Catapults: Mechanical Worlds of Nature and People (1999), Penguin Books, UK (382 pp.) .
4. S. Vogel, Nature's swell, but is it worth copying?, MRS (Materials Research Society) Bulletin, vol. 28 (2003), pp. 404-408 .
5. S. Vogel, A short history of muscle-powered machines, Natural History, vol. 111 no. 2 (March, 2002), pp. 84-91 .
6. S. A. Etnier and S. Vogel, Reorientation of daffodil (Narcissus) flowers in wind: drag reduction and torsional flexibility., American Journal of Botany, vol. 87 (2000), pp. 29-32 .
7. S. Vogel, Rhino horns and paper cups: deceptive similarities between natural and human designs, J. Bioscience, vol. 25 (2000), pp. 191-195 .
8. S. Vogel and J. G. Vogel, Copying Life's Devices, Current Science, vol. 78 (2000), pp. 1424-1430 .