Date: Thursday, November 7, 2002
Time: 4-5 PM
Location: CCE, McKenna Hall Auditorium

Speaker: Prof. Steven Vogel
From: James B. Duke Professor of Biology, Duke University

Host: Glen Niebur (Aerospace & Mechanical Engineering)

Title: The Biomecanics of Ancient Tasks

Abstract:
Through most of our history, muscle has been almost our only engine, whether our own or that of a few domesticated animals. So, what we have done and how we have done things might just turn on the force and the power of muscle, from clearing land to moving stones, propelling boats, and throwing projectiles. The effectiveness of our devices depended on how well they could mate that strange engine of our tasks. The history of technology has physiological underpinnings.