Linhong Deng talks with
ScienceWatch.com and answers a few questions about
this month's Fast Breaking Paper in the field of Materials
Science. The author has also sent along images of
their work.
Article Title: Fast and slow dynamics of the
cytoskeleton
Authors:
Deng,
LH;Trepat, X;Butler, JP;Millet, E;Morgan, KG;Weitz,
DA;Fredberg, JJ
Journal: NAT MATER
Volume: 5
Issue: 8
Page: 636-640
Year: AUG 2006
Figure 1: Magnetic bead twisting cytometry
used to measure the mechanical properties
of the cell (top), and freshly isolated
cells before (lower left) and after (lower
right) magnetic beads are attached
to.
Figure
2:
Figure 2: Data are widely spread due to
intrinsic heterogeneity of the cells.
However, a trend of deviation in the data
at high frequency is
noticeable.
Figure
3:
Figure 3: Two regimes emerge from the wide
spread data. At high frequencies (>100
Hz), the complex modulus of the cell
increases with frequency as a power law of
a universal exponent of 0.75, exactly like
semiflexible filament network systems. At
low frequency (<100 Hz), it increases
with frequency as a weak power law of
non-universal exponent,
a
(a=0.05 in the
particular case of Figure 3), like soft
glassy materials.