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Sensory systems based on arrays of hairs occur widely in nature and
function in diverse sensing scenarios, for instance in air (cerci,
external sensing hairs in arthropods), in water (lateral line,
neuromasts in fish) and in a fluid-filled compartment coupled to air
through impedance matching devices and beamforming baffles (mammalian auditory apparatus).
These mechanosensor-systems are amongst the most
sensitive sensors known. This suggests that hair-based sensing organs,
supported by appropriate neuronal representation and processing, are a
model system particularly well-suited for studying the extraction of
significant information from noisy environments.
Contact:
Prof. Andreas Offenhäusser
Institute of Thin Films & Interfaces (ISG2)
Forschungszentrum Jülich
D-52425 Jülich, Germany
Tel: +49 (0) 2461 61 2330
Fax: +49 (0) 2461 61 8733
Email: 
cilia_pm@fz-juelich.de
Summer School
The CILIA Summer School "Mechanosensors: From biological to bionic systems" took place from March 30 to April 3, 2008 in Sant Feliu de Guixols, Spain.
CILIA on Television!
VPRO has telecasted a documentary on Cilia on June 20, 2007. A web-cast of it (upper box under VIDEO) can be found here.
Model Systems
Cricket Hairs
