THE SOCHA LAB

Today I told stories about catching flying snakes at a "Science on Tap" event at the Rivermill in Blacksburg. The talk was generally about the snakes and the research we've done on them, but I also got off on some tangents related to gliding. Apparently someone posted a clip on Facebook (search on "ants that glide).

This weekend we hosted the Southeast regional meeting of SICB for the DCB and DVM divisions (comparative biomechanics and vertebrate morphology). Lab member Hodjat Pendar helped to organize the conference, along with Dr. Martha Munoz from Biological Sciences. Isaac, Michelle, Khaled, and Sharri gave talks. The plenary speaker was Dr. Haibo Dong from UVA, who gave an interesting talk on his computational modeling of fluid flows involved in flying and swimming. Dr. Haibo Dong:

Today the lab participated in our second Virginia Science Festival. Last time we did a snake landing activity in the Cube. This time we took advantage of Jonas's masters thesis work and put together an exhibit on why friction matters for snakes in locomotion, particularly in climbing. Michelle lead the charge in designing and organizing the exhibit, and we also had help from Sharri, Khaled, Talia, Morgan, Mela, Anusha, and Sofie.

This week I traveled to Argonne National Lab to work with Dr. Sterling Nesbitt, a faculty member in the Geosciences Department. We we conducting tomographic imaging of tiny chameleons, one the world's smallest vertebrates. Check them out here: https://www.popsci.com/science/article/2012-02/worlds-tiniest-chameleons-found-madagascar