Laboratory of Mathematical and Physical Ethology

How is intelligence of living things generated? It is a big problem from Ancient Greece to clarify the mechanism of information processing of living organisms. This problem has been tackled by many investigators many times. The tackling of this problem can also enrich our understanding of the human itself. If we could understand the method of biological information processing, we could create machines that are useful and helpful for human. We are now focusing on the unicellular organisms, evaluating the abilities of their information processing, and trying to clarify the mechanism of information processing from a viewpoint of dynamical systems. Taking advantage of the simplicity of the unicellular organisms, we are now clarifying the rules of movement of living organisms, departing from those of passive objects. This is what we call the adventure to the origins of information processing of living organisms. To do so, we are developing our researches by combining mathematical science, information science, experimental science and observations in the field.

Homepage of Laboratory of Mathematical and Physical Ethology

Recent papers:

  • 1) Qi Ma, A. Johansson, A. Tero, T. Nakagaki, D. J. T. Sumpter: “Current reinforced random walks for constructing transport network”, The Royal Soc. Interface, Vol. 10, 20120864 (2013)
  • 2) S. Kuroda, I. Kunita,Y. Tanaka, A. Ishiguro, R. Kobayashi, and T. Nakagaki : “Common mechanics of mode switching in locomotion of limbless and legged animals”, The Royal Soc. Interface, Vol. 11, 20140205 (2014)
  • 3) I. Kunita, K. Sato, Y. Tanaka, Y. Takikawa, H. Orihara, and T. Nakagaki: “Shear Banding in An F-actin Solution”, Physical Review Letters, Vol. 109, 248303 (2012)
  • 4) A. Tero, S. Takagi, T. Saigusa, K. Ito, D. P. Bebber, 4) M. D. Fricker, K. Yumiki, R. Kobayashi and T. Nakagaki : “Rules for biologically-inspired adaptive network design”, Science, 327 : 439-442 (2010)
  • 5) K.-I. Ueda, S. Takagi, Y. Nishiura, and T. Nakagaki : “Mathematical model for contemplative amoeboid locomotion”, Physical Review E, 83, 021916 (2011)