“Faster than a bullet.” “In the blink of an eye.” “Explosive.” You can find these terms in almost any description of Sheila Patek’s research: ultra-fast movements and the organisms that produce them.
From trap-jaw ants to witch hazel plants, the organisms this biology professor studies punch, snap, jump, project and pirouette in ways that surpass any man-made artifact. They generate forces that are orders of magnitude greater than their own mass, and without damage to their relatively fragile exoskeleton. Patek really wants to know how. Engineers are eager for her to find out.
“These organisms are doing things with capabilities that we currently cannot build. Engineered systems that can be used repeatedly are several orders of magnitude slower and bigger than these animals,” said Patek.
The potential behind ultrafast movements is so vast that even the Army is paying attention, but Patek is a ferocious advocate for basic research. In 2015, one of her graduate student’s experiments was included in Senator Jeff Flake (R-Ariz)’s “Wastebook: The Farce Awakens,” a report on federally funded projects the senator deemed wasteful. Patek marched to Capitol Hill to defend her research and became known far beyond academia for her fervent critique of misguided attacks on science, as well as the crushing impact these attacks can have on young researchers.
Her care for young researchers led her to create Muser, a platform where labs seeking students and undergrads in search of research opportunities can find each other through a system that helps reduce bias.
Robots or military equipment aren’t what drive her. “For me, I just think that we all have better lives if we have more knowledge about the world we live in,” she said. “I think it’s a fundamental piece of human happiness.”
