Mosquito attraction and bird baths

We consider two aspects of flight: host-finding by mosquitoes and feather maintenance by birds.  Mosquitoes use various cues, such as vision and carbon dioxide, to track down hosts.  We use 3D cameras to measure mosquito flight trajectories around inanimate objects and use Bayesian inference modeling to predict their behaviour around a human exhibiting a combination of cues. Next, we ask why birds bathe.  We consider the aerodynamic effects of bathing in water and shaking dry.  Feathers block wind by the interlocking of microscopic barbs.  We show how these feathers become more robust through coatings from the bird's oil glands and barb collisions that “heal” a feather and prepare it for flight. 

Biography

Dr. David Hu is Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Biology and Adjunct Professor of Physics at Georgia Institute of Technology. He earned degrees in mathematics and mechanical engineering from M.I.T. and was a National Science Foundation (NSF) Postdoctoral Fellow at New York University. He is a recipient of the American Physical Society Fellowship, the Ig Nobel Prize in Physics (twice), the NSF CAREER award, and the Science Communication Award from American Institute of Physics.  He sits on the editorial boards of Proceedings of the Royal Society B and Journal of Experimental Biology. He is the author of two books "How to walk on water and Climb Up Walls,"  (Princeton University Press) and "The P Word" (Science, Naturally).  He lives with his wife and two children in Atlanta, Georgia