UC Berkeley
3060 Valley Life Sciences Bldg #3140
Berkeley CA 94720-3140
Contact IB
Phone: (510) 642-3281
Fax: (510) 643-6264
Home > People > Faculty & Researchers > Profiles > More >
Meet the IB Faculty
Dr. Sheila Patek
Dr. Patek's research addresses fundamental questions about the competing influences of form and function during evolutionary origins and subsequent evolutionary diversification.
Research
To address these questions, she applies an integrative and comparative approach based at the intersection of biomechanics, behavior and macroevolution.
Dr. Patek conducts research in a diverse array of biological systems, including spiny lobsters, mantis shrimp, ants and even fungi.
The Patek lab focuses primarily on two systems: sound production in spiny lobsters (Palinuridae) and the evolutionary biomechanics of the mantis shrimp’s raptorial strike (Stomatopoda).
The Spiny Lobster as Violinist
Scientists and the public are often surprised to learn that spiny lobsters make sound. Perhaps even more surprising is the fact that spiny lobsters generate sound using a mechanism that is unique within the animal kingdom, but is well-known to humans.
Dr. Patek demonstrated that, much like the friction between a violin bow and string, spiny lobsters use stick and slip friction between structures on their antennae and head to generate sound during interactions with predators.
The Patek Lab is currently investigating the evolutionary biomechanics of friction-based sound production in spiny lobsters.
In addition to these lab-based studies, the Patek Lab also ventures to the Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies on Santa Catalina Island to conduct field behavioral experiments on the anti-predator performance of spiny lobster sounds.
A Swift & Deadly Kick
In 2003, with the help of a BBC camera crew and the use of high speed video equipment, Dr. Patek and her colleagues, IB professor Roy Caldwell and graduate student Wyatt Korff, documented the extreme speeds with which the mantis shrimp strikes its prey.
They also discovered that cavitation bubbles form between the mantis shrimp’s raptorial appendage and the prey.
Since that initial discovery, Dr. Patek has measured the record-breaking forces generated by the mantis shrimp’s hammer (over a thousand times their body weight!).
She demonstrated that mantis shrimp actually generate two types of force when they strike – one peak due to the impact of the limb and the second peak due to the implosive collapse of cavitation bubbles.
Currently, the Patek Lab is investigating the comparative biomechanics of mantis shrimp. Specifically, they are focusing on the origins and comparative mechanics of a hammer-like appendage which is derived from a spear-like appendage which most stomatopods use to capture prey.
Dr. Patek: Q&A
Why a scientist?
From my earliest memories, I have been fascinated by biological structures and how they function. In my youth, I spent innumerable hours outside exploring and examining the biological world – from blades of grass to emerging butterflies.
In college, I found out that there is a field of biology dedicated to exactly this kind of inquiry– functional morphology! When I began conducting my own scientific research as an undergraduate, I knew that I had found my calling.
What led you to the questions you are now investigating in your research?
These questions are driven by a mix of intense curiosity, critical observations and a healthy dose of pragmatism. I follow questions that I find interesting and I think would offer important insights to the broader scientific community.
How does your research affect your classroom and/or lab?
It is tremendously gratifying to expose people to new scientific discoveries, and to be part of the training of our youngest and most promising scientists.
I try to bring the excitement of actual scientific research and discovery to my lectures and to the training of undergraduates and graduate students in my lab.
What do you enjoy most about your research?
I enjoy hands-on research in the laboratory and field. Nothing compares to the thrill of the first insights in a new project and the satisfaction of fundamentally understanding a biological phenomenon for the first time.
October 2005
Links to Dr. Patek's Research
Listen to the California spiny lobster
Image and sound courtesy of Patek Lab
View high speed video of the peacock mantis shrimp smashing a snail. Black arrow indicates cavitation between snail and shrimp's limb. Image and video courtesy of Patek Lab.
