active elastica

Active or passive, matter that has the form of filaments can be observed at all scales in nature. Examples include DNA, hairs, snakes, eels, plants, beams, solar flares, and galactic filaments. Many studies have been performed when the constituent matter of these structures is made of passive substance, as is the case of beams, cables, strings, etc. However, for modeling living filamentary structures, there are still deficiencies in our understanding due to the lack of a general constitutive theory relating the growth to the stresses. In this talk, we discuss some canonical examples of combining Euler's elastica with activity as a way to gain insights into the growth and form of some living matter.