GSJ: Scale-ing New Heights

Georgia Science Junction – Scale-ing New Heights: Exploring Snake Locomotion

Thursday, October 22nd, 7-8:30 pm

In-Person and Streaming

Location: Manuel’s Tavern, 602 North Highland Avenue Northeast, Atlanta

Featured Speaker: Calvin Riiska, Ph.D

Let’s celebrate and explore how our limbless neighbors move through the world this spooky season. From skin structures to climbing strategies, snakes rely on the physics interactions to maintain stability and vertical movement.

We are drawn to questions that sit at the intersection of physics and biology: how does body geometry determine the forces an animal can generate? How do microscopic surface structures influence locomotion at a macro scale? What physical laws dominate when a limbless animal navigates complex terrain?

Join Dr. Calvin as he explains his doctoral work focused on arboreal snake locomotion, where he designed and built custom instrumentation to collect temporally resolved force and kinematic data, develop computational models to isolate the physical principles governing observed behaviors, and use atomic force microscopy to characterize the surface structures of snakeskin at the micron scale.

Continuing on the great tradition of Atlanta Science Tavern and Science Tales & Trails – GSJ events are interactive events that share science information, facilitate discussion, and help us all work together to enable science to serve all of Georgia.

Speaker Name: Calvin Riiska, Ph.D

Speaker Bio: Calvin holds a B.A. in Physics and Mathematics from Wheaton College and a PhD in Physics from Emory University, where he worked with Dr. Jennifer Rieser. His research investigates the mechanical basis of locomotion in animals with elongate body plans using a combination of experimental biomechanics, physical modeling, and data analysis.  His long-term research focus is on how elongate body plans shape locomotor performance across environments, with particular interest in the convergently evolved mechanical strategies that allow animals as different as snakes, salamanders, and elongate fish to move effectively through complex terrain.

Mamba Dendroaspis angusticeps Image (green snake): By Holger Krisp – Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17625003