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Asymmetric drop coalescence launches fungal ballistospores with directionality

Overview of attention for article published in Journal of The Royal Society Interface, July 2017
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About this Attention Score

  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (97th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (91st percentile)

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11 news outlets
blogs
6 blogs
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4 X users

Citations

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35 Dimensions

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27 Mendeley
Title
Asymmetric drop coalescence launches fungal ballistospores with directionality
Published in
Journal of The Royal Society Interface, July 2017
DOI 10.1098/rsif.2017.0083
Pubmed ID
Authors

Fangjie Liu, Roger L. Chavez, S. N. Patek, Anne Pringle, James J. Feng, Chuan-Hua Chen

Abstract

Thousands of fungal species use surface energy to power the launch of their ballistospores. The surface energy is released when a spherical Buller's drop at the spore's hilar appendix merges with a flattened drop on the adaxial side of the spore. The launching mechanism is primarily understood in terms of energetic models, and crucial features such as launching directionality are unexplained. Integrating experiments and simulations, we advance a mechanistic model based on the capillary-inertial coalescence between the Buller's drop and the adaxial drop, a pair that is asymmetric in size, shape and relative position. The asymmetric coalescence is surprisingly effective and robust, producing a launching momentum governed by the Buller's drop and a launching direction along the adaxial plane of the spore. These key functions of momentum generation and directional control are elucidated by numerical simulations, demonstrated on spore-mimicking particles, and corroborated by published ballistospore kinematics. Our work places the morphological and kinematic diversity of ballistospores into a general mechanical framework, and points to a generic catapulting mechanism of colloidal particles with implications for both biology and engineering.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 4 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 27 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 27 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Ph. D. Student 6 22%
Student > Master 5 19%
Professor 4 15%
Student > Bachelor 2 7%
Researcher 2 7%
Other 2 7%
Unknown 6 22%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Engineering 8 30%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 4 15%
Chemical Engineering 3 11%
Physics and Astronomy 2 7%
Business, Management and Accounting 1 4%
Other 2 7%
Unknown 7 26%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 125. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 22 January 2018.
All research outputs
#282,146
of 22,992,311 outputs
Outputs from Journal of The Royal Society Interface
#138
of 3,075 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#6,873
of 317,089 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Journal of The Royal Society Interface
#4
of 48 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 22,992,311 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 98th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 3,075 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 27.7. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 95% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 317,089 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 97% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 48 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 91% of its contemporaries.