Anesthesia, Vitamin E, Minimal Surfaces and Lipids

Paul Harper, Calvin College, Department of Physics and Astronomy

Lipids are an essential element of life, serving as the basic building blocks of cell membranes in all living creatures.    Mathematics undergirds our understanding of lipid biophysics, as well as being a powerful tool for probing these systems.    We’ll learn about a century old and as yet unexplained mathematical relationship involving the effectiveness of anesthesia and lipids, how to use X-rays and Fourier transforms to better understand lipid and Vitamin E interactions and will finally look at some rather beautiful and useful minimal surface based lipid structures.