By Michael Shelley, New York University

Swimming, or self-locomotion through a fluid, is done by algae, bacteria, birds, and whales. It even occurs inside of cells. Swimming becomes especially fascinating when it involves collectives that interact through the fluid. I'll talk about a few examples. One involves experiments and models that explore the interactions of many flapping flyers. Surprising effects occur due to the ability of the fluid to store information on the history of the flow. At a very different scale I'll discuss how biological motor proteins can collectively drive flow and transport in the cell, such as the "swimming" and positioning of the pronuclear complex prior to cell division.