In December 2011 the sixth edition of the CONGres conference took place. In this edition the theme was ‘Motion in Biology; from crawling creatures to the cosmic constant‘.
Movement is a fundamental challenge for all forms of life. From bacteria propelling themselves through a petri-dish to running a marathon, each individual form of movement has its own mechanism and its own elegance. Our expert speakers each discussed unique examples of movement.
To demonstrate how this topic is relevant to all aspects of biology, our speakers have covered movement at increasingly macroscopic levels throughout the day. The talks began at the level of single cells, where we learned about sperm- egg cell interactions. After the parallel sessions, we discussed animal movement, starting with the fascinating biomechanics of insects. We discovered the science behind football as well as the difficulties faced by birds during migration. Our final talk covered the motion of cosmic rays and the influence they have on all life on earth. During the parallel lectures we could choose between topics about movement in plants and migration of stem cells in the brain. Furthermore, human movement, both the cognitive aspects such as motor imagery and the challenges of balance control were addressed.
