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

Amazing research and such a fantastic scicomm video. I'd like to show it to my kids, but I'm afraid that it'll backfire and they'll use it to explain why all the clothes in their cupboards are unfolded despite the fact they were folded when they went in....

(1/n) What if you never had to make your bed? What if your laundry could fold itself? Folding is everywhere around us - but did you know that folding flat sheets are at the ❤️ of diversity of shapes in the animal world - since 500 million years ago. Our latest work: www.youtube.com/watch?v=nudC...

These microrobots can execute digitally defined algorithms and autonomously change behavior in response to their surroundings. It paves the way for general-purpose microrobots that work together to carry out tasks without supervision in uncertain environments. 🧪 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

I am pleased to announce that from Jan 1 2026 I take over as Editor-in-Chief of the journal Biological Theory. My first act, with the support of the editorial team, is to bring the journal to BlueSky from X. Please follow us @biologicaltheory.bsky.social. We will be posting about all our articles.

New York Times article on science funding with some depressing but familiar curves with interactive graphics. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

PSA for people with NIH grant periods starting January 1st (including most NIGMS MIRAs): your RPPR is due Saturday, but they haven’t sent out the usual automated reminders, presumably due to the shutdown

Are you a scientist? Is your research cool? Do people not adequately appreciate how cool your research is? I'm looking for researchers to feature in Q&A-style interviews on my blog and would love to hear from (or about — embarrass your friends!) scientists interested in sharing their work. 🧪

Great sci comm.

How much stress would a wood beetle get if the wood beetle was filled with worms? Horned passalus beetles can have dozens to thousands of worms squirming inside them - and these worms can affect how their host responds to stress #invertebrate 🧪 dailyparasite.blogspot.com/2023/06/chon...

Domesticated animals have pulled our heavy carts and turned our large mills for centuries. But what about the opposite end of the spectrum—what if the wheel you want to turn is so small you can’t see it? Turns out we can harness the power of bacteria to power the world’s smallest machines. 1/7 ⚛️🧪

Ingenious concept - light sheet on serial sections by photo-etching the expanded hydrogel, layer by layer. Photo-sectioning is quite slow, and the volumetric images are insanely large and complex, but the data look wonderful. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Welcome to all the new Packard Fellows- this is an incredible community. I look forward to meeting you at the reunion! Also, huge congrats to my colleague @jameststroud.bsky.social! Can't wait to see what you discover in your long-term eco/evo experiment, Lizard Island!

This is my 1st time catching my pet archer fish, Legolas, spitting on camera. Archerfish use modified jaw and tongue bones to fire a jet of water to knock down bugs from over hanging vegetation. Here Legolas is shooting down a fruit fly 🪰 🐠🧪

🦑🧪 Job doing fieldwork (on ships) with Viking Cruises. Full-time position = ? Salary = ? I usually don't post without more detail, but the job market is weird right now! And this would be a fun fit for someone, and I'm not sure if it'll hit the usual job feeds www.vikingcareers.com/global/en/jo...

In another exciting development our new preprint is online: www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/... This is the work of my brilliant graduate student Katerina Kourkoulou in collaboration with Maggie Liu and Arnold Mathijssen. Here is a video of the subject of our study:

Here's an interesting look into the Nobel Physics Prize nominating process up to the early 1970's. It's a reminder that it's never only been about the science. And that the human factors in science arise especially in recognition of work. 🧪 pubs.aip.org/physicstoday...

New short paper from our lab @currentbiology.bsky.social, in which we discover of a new mode of cell motility for choanoflagellates: flagellar gliding. www.cell.com/current-biol... - A 🧵

Ripple bugs are aquatic insects about the size of a grain of rice, and it turns out that they can surf! 🦟🏄 A recent discovery by team @bhamlalab.bsky.social ‬found that these insects harness tiny fans to surf streams and glide across fast-flowing water. More at: bhamla.gatech.edu/project-blog...

We are all super happy and proud to see our work on the function and evolution of the #cephalic #furrow published in @nature.com. Let me say a few things about the background and history of this work on the #Evolution_of_Morphogenesis (1/12)

More insights into the life of a scientist cosmosmagazine.com/science/biol.... 🧪 #arctic

Big thanks to our team in @mbarinews.bsky.social Bioinspiration Lab and @moorefound.bsky.social for the wonderful feature and support as we developed EyeRIS. You can learn more about how we use this imaging system to study 🦑🌊🧪 from this 🧵: bsky.app/profile/kaka.... #onwardsanddownwards

Advice about sending your message in a noisy environment, from some birds with unusual eyelids: elizabethgpreston.substack.com/p/how-to-cut... 🧪

Can cellular life be created in the lab? We are not yet there, but clearly getting closer! Check this paper where a new scenario for protocell replication is presented by Job Boekhoven and co-workers @manlius.bsky.social www.cell.com/chem/pdf/S24...

This is a really exciting collab with Simon Rogers at Illinois. We're creating a rheological framework to characterize the mechanical behavior of granular materials. We're using it to improve 3D tissue printing & study dynamic processes like cell-mediated remodeling & aging. Supported by NIH. 🧪

More #SciArt comics, and perfect timing for #InverteFest!

Wall Tile https://www.slam.org/collection/objects/13310/

Beautiful discovery and patient unraveling of a cellular mystery 🕵🏼‍♂️

Altogether, our results suggest that supergiants could serve as a bet-hedging strategy involving a tradeoff between dispersal versus the exploitation of a new trophic niche as a growing population reaches carrying capacity. 9/n

We found that this Euplotes isolate was in fact a previously undescribed species, displaying a highly polymorphic phenotype, including supergiant cannibals and also winged, "defensive" morphs, captured by SEM by Sam Lord. We named the species "gigatrox" in reference to the fierce supergiants. 4/n

After picking cells to start cultures and then neglecting them for weeks, I began to notice the sporadic appearance of very large cells. During a visit to the Keeling lab, Vittorio Boscaro suggested these cells might be cannibals, as described in other protist species including some Euplotes. 3/n

What could be more exciting than watching Euplotes scurry around under the microscope? How about adding some raptorial predation by supergiant cannibal cells? www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... Video by Vittorio Boscaro. 1/n

Ripple bugs use a special fan-like structure on their middle legs to speed and steer through turbulent waters. In a new Science study, researchers report a water-walking robot inspired by this feature. Learn more in our latest issue: https://scim.ag/3V8FjDU

New SciComic! Check it out!

Folks the paper is on the cover of the latest issue of Science.

New comic about the science of water strider bugs! Was great working with Bhamla Lab on this, check out the paper upthread.

This is fantastic research and even better outreach!!

Featured on the cover of science

How do tiny ripple bugs surf raging rivers? Check out our new work in @science.org Work led by Victor Ortega-Jimenez, Dongjin Kim, Sunny Kumar, Changhwan Kim, Je-Sung Koh, and Saad Bhamla - a collaboration between UC Berkeley, Georgia Tech, and Ajou University. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

We’re recruiting PhD students & postdocs excited about nonlinear dynamics and the physics of living systems. Help us spread the word!

Dreaming of a swimming pool? Bacteria are surrounded by water! Water capillary forces organize bacterial colonies into gas, nematic streams, or droplet states. New paper @natphys.nature.com led by Matt Black and Chenyi Fei, with Ned Wingreen and Josh Shaevitz! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

I’m not a lawyer, but it seems like this is more properly robbery not extortion, as the threat is damage being immediately inflicted and not a vague future threat, no?

I miss super creative web design like this

🥂This was the highlight of my year. The "instigators", led by local master of the ceremony @svobodalab.bsky.social will never forget the privilege of organizing it and i think every participant will treasure the experience forever ❤️ @nature.com @josiegz.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/d41...

🚨 2 × PhD positions @EPFL! 🚨 Help us push the boundaries of fluorescence microscopy - DNA nanotech, custom optics & spatial omics in Lausanne 🇨🇭. Start Jan 2026. Send CV + motivation + 2 refs → [email protected] #PhD #Hiring #microscopy #SuperResolution #SpatialOmics #DNAPAINT #FLASHPAINT

Thank you Katie!!

Hiring 4 postdocs — organismal biophysics, soft robotics, frugal Raman diagnostics, or your own bold idea. 3-year funding, $65K+ benefits. GT (Atlanta) now → CU Boulder BioFrontiers Institute in Fall ’26. PDF/details in next post. Tag/share if someone comes to mind. 🧪🪲🪳#livingphysics

Evaporative fluxes driving fluid flow as potential enablers of early DNA replication 🌊 🧬. Unsure about the implications, but how could the origin of life 🦠 not involve fluid dynamics, right? #FluidDynamics #life #FYFD #DNA.

Mount Holyoke College in lovely western Massachusetts is hiring a tenure-track neuroscientist. Amazing students and fantastic faculty support - please share! mtholyoke.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Extern...