Delighted this paper is out! Soft solids fracture in complex ways. Can we control it using structure and activity? Yes, using defects that localize energy injection for targeted failure! Amazing work combining exp, theory & ML by Sheng Chen and collab with Murrell lab (Yale).
Sometimes, the only way to build back up is to let everything fall apart. This is certainly true at the cellular level. www.quantamagazine.org/break-it-to-...
Great to see our paper on light-intensity dependent swimming patterns in #Chlamydomonas out now in Phys Rev Lett. as an Editors' suggestion! With a nice commentary by @philipcball.bsky.social.
Chlamy actively modulate the beat planes of their #cilia!
journals.aps.org/prl/abstract... #protistsonsky
Our latest with @torres-sanchez.bsky.social journals.biologists.com/dev/article-...
Breaking isn’t always a bad thing! Think of birth, seed release...
We highlight how living tissue not only tolerates fractures but actively fracture to grow, shape, reproduce, or adapt – across species and scales.
Fluorescent neurons on black background. We're hiring! PhD Student
🚨 We are #hiring a PhD Student to study cerebellum-like circuits in #Drosophila.
Please spread the word!
www.groschner-lab.org/join
#Neuroscience #PhD
Our article on multilayer inflatables has been published! A physics-computer graphics collab in which we introduce a new type of thin-sheet balloons and discuss their shape programming 🎈 @espciparispsl.bsky.social @pmmh-lab.bsky.social
dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1...
Excited to share my first PhD preprint! w/ Sören Kannegieser and @anna-stoeckl.bsky.social @insect-vision.bsky.social
We investigated how hawkmoths coordinate lateralized sensory and motor control for appendage guidance, revealing similar control principles to vertebrates doi.org/10.64898/202...
The paper is finally out in JFM 🎉🎊: doi.org/10.1017/jfm....
Below is the thread summary of last year 👇
Really excited to share our new paper in @nature.com! We uncovered how a physical instability of the cytoplasm coupled with the cell cycle drives cytoplasmic partitioning in early embryos #zebrafish #drosophila. Read more in this🧵 www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🤩
@poldresden.bsky.social @mpi-cbg.de
Super happy to share the exciting work of Emma Legait, showing how neighbourhood composition determines cancer stem cell fate in hierarchical tumours. A great and long-standing collaboration with @cedricmaurange.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
More about our latest collaborative work...
“Architectural Swarms for responsive façades and creative expression” is now published in Science Robotics @science.org ! Read it here: science.org/doi/10.1126/scirobotics.ady7233.
Job alert🚨I am advertising a 2-year postdoctoral position to work on the mathematics of plant morphogenesis @mpipz.bsky.social. Candidates with interests in mathematical modelling, mechanics, or biophysics are strongly encouraged to apply. 🌱Reposts are appreciated!
jobs.mpipz.mpg.de/jobposting/4...
Our new paper (with @biotay.bsky.social) is out and on the cover story of @currentbiology.bsky.social !!!! Veronika, a Carinthian mountain cow flexibly uses a “multi-purpose tool” to scratch herself. A video and more information will follow in the comments.
www.cell.com/current-biol...
Excited to share Alison's @alisonkickuth.bsky.social paper from the lab out in @nature.com this week! We uncovered how a mechanical ratchet mechanism drives cytokinesis in early #zebrafish embryos. Read more in this thread 🧵 and at www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🤩
@poldresden.bsky.social @mpi-cbg.de
The most recognisable feature of the human brain is its folds. So why do other animals’ brains look so different?
Check out our latest preprint on the cellular mechanical basis of Voronoi tessellations in epithelia! This biophysics study is inspired by disordered tessellations observed in zebrafish hearts 🤓🐟💙 #SulaimaanLim #ChiuFanLeeLab
arxiv.org/html/2512.13...
Non-motile microbes are not prisoners of diffusive transport. Just their metabolic activity can be sufficient to stir up the ambient fluid and cause explosive long-range dispersal -- a "metabolic firework".
Our latest work -- arxiv.org/abs/2512.16288
The study shows how individual fingerprint ridges deform when we touch different textures, revealing how subtle stretching and shifting along the ridge flanks may drive our remarkably fine tactile sensitivity.
buff.ly/4z67Vf1
Nature research paper: Quantifying grain boundary deformation mechanisms in small-grained metals
go.nature.com/48vtZcJ
As humanity pumps carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, the ocean absorbs about a quarter of it. This exchange happens largely through bubbles created by breaking waves.
fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=26003
Researchers propose a method of manipulating small particles by using acoustic levitation and electrostatic charging, leveraging electrostatic repulsion and acoustic attraction to expand and collapse structures as needed. In PNAS: https://ow.ly/LKIK50XC71T
Where on earth is the best laboratory to demonstrate the beauty of fluid dynamics?
Actually, it’s not on earth. Here is the story of the soft cell.
And a longer read: www.maths.ox.ac.uk/node/74308
Active droplets are fundamental in cell biology and origin of life. With Jonathan Bauermann, @boekhovenlab.bsky.social, Frank Jülicher, and @m-pol.bsky.social, we show that a critical transition influences their size, morphology, ripening and division propensity
journals.aps.org/prx/abstract...
Our work on hydrodynamic instabilities in active jets is on the cover of PRL this week!
journals.aps.org/prl/abstract...
A dialogue between experiment and theory, where we use light to control active suspensions and show how they can be destabilized by their self-generated flows
Coaxing tiny, self-propelled particles into cohesive structures provides one route to making micromachines. Taking a step in that direction, researchers have measured and analyzed the mechanical properties of materials assembled from active particles.
Workshop poster
Excited to be at ICTS for the school on Geometry, Mechanics and the Physics of Growth, co-organized with Ganga Prasath (IITM) and @joelmarthelot.bsky.social (Aix-Marseille)! Fantastic start with a lecture on continuum elasticity by @abigailplummer.bsky.social (BU)
Really excited to present the results of a fantastic collaboration with Jesse Veenvliet @jesseveenvliet.bsky.social @mpi-cbg.de @poldresden.bsky.social 🤩
We find a unique mechanism for body axis elongation in mammals, different from other vertebrate species
➡️ www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Static electricity may be key to helping a tiny roundworm latch onto its insect hosts.
Like a heat-seeking missile, the parasite zooms up to 10 millimeters in the air before getting yanked toward its target by nothing more than the electrostatic charge of its host. https://scim.ag/3WKFVjZ
Sharpen your knives! High-speed video analysis reveals that blunt knives and faster cutting speeds release more eye-irritating droplets from onions by building pressure under the onion’s skin before the ejection of the tear-inducing aerosols. In PNAS: https://ow.ly/5rc750Xcvhj
Appreciate Quanta for shining a light on our joint work with Simon Gsell, Sham Tlili (@shamtlili.bsky.social), and Matthias Merkel (@merkellab.bsky.social).
