Despite it being chaotic, active nematic turbulence can give rise to arrested labyrinthine patterns! Check out our new paper @physrevresearch.bsky.social! Work led by Ido Lavi, with Jean-François Joanny and Jaume Casademunt. journals.aps.org/prresearch/a...

📰 Notícies, agenda científica, descobriments i entrevistes. ICREA't és el teu nou portal per seguir l'actualitat de les investigacions dels recercaires ICREA a Catalunya. No et perdis res 👉 icreat.cat

New preprint! We show how mesoscopic nonequilibrium fluctuations in active gels emerge from the breaking of detailed balance at the molecular scale. Warning: Long technical paper ahead! Enjoy! @mpipks.bsky.social @ub.edu @ubics.bsky.social @icreacommunity.bsky.social arxiv.org/abs/2601.20483

#NousICREAs2025 | 🧬 Ricard Alert @ricardalert.bsky.social (@ub.edu) investiga en física biològica. Estudia com les lleis de la física governen la vida, per exemple, investigant com cèl·lules i bacteris es mouen en grups. short.do/UBTLe-

Our paper on the transition to active turbulence is now out @natcomms.nature.com! With @the-chaotician.bsky.social. Are you curious how activity begets chaos? Check out the paper and the thread below. 👇 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

New preprint! Do you like ocean waves? We found similar waves on bacterial colonies! We found that this collective behavior, known as rippling, is nothing but surface waves on an active nematic. @princeton.edu @mpipks.bsky.social @ub.edu @icreacommunity.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Super excited to start as an ICREA Research Professor at the University of Barcelona! Really happy to join fantastic colleagues at @icreacommunity.bsky.social and @ub.edu. www.icrea.cat/community/ic...

🎧🎙Últim capítol de La utilitat del coneixement inútil! Parlem amb la @gmarfanyn.bsky.social sobre CRISPR i obrim el debat que hem de tenir tots de la millor manera: amb el coneixement científic a la mà! @soctastaolletes.bsky.social youtu.be/DUzzjkkUBT4?...

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...

🕵️ A qui t’agradaria conèixer? Amb quantes persones hi arribaries? El Ricard Solé @ricardsole.bsky.social, investigador ICREA a @upf.edu ens ho explica al nostre pòdcast! youtube.com/shorts/buG_R...

Escolta en nou capítol de La utilitat del coneixement inútil! Quàntica, ordinadors i espanta sogres!!! 🎉🥳

🤔 Can tissue patterning & tumor heterogeneity emerge in a self-organized way? We show that self-organized mechanical stress & density gradients pattern tumors in vitro & in vivo, and this behavior is quantitatively predicted by a mechano-chemical active fluid model! Check out Carlos' thread ⬇️

1/ 🎉Excited to share our new preprint @vignjeviclab.bsky.social @davidbrueckner.bsky.social : "Self-organization of tumor heterogeneity and plasticity" biorxiv.org/content/10.1... Tumor heterogeneity and plasticity drive metastasis and relapse. How is tumor patterning coordinated? A thread👇

🛰️ Sabies que fas servir la teoria de la relativitat cada cop que treus el GPS? Mira el 4t capítol de La utilitat del coneixement inútil per veure com li peta el cap a la @soctastaolletes.bsky.social 🤯 Amb un ajut @fcri.bsky.social open.spotify.com/episode/4lza...

New job, new preprint! We found that embryo implantation can be understood as active wetting! Embryos from older mothers have trouble implanting because they are too contractile and viscous. Check out the wonderful thread (and movies!) by @katecavanaugh.bsky.social. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Excited to be back in Barcelona @ub.edu to start a new chapter!

Warm goodbye to Dresden's @mpipks.bsky.social, my scientific home for the past 4 years. It's been amazing to start my group here! Thanks to the Max Planck Society, group members and everyone at the institute! Looking forward to the new chapter in Barcelona @ub.edu

IG Nobel Prize in #Physics 2025 to @mpipks.bsky.social researchers for elucidating the phase behaviour of cacio e pepe sauce. The work highlights how physics can also be applied to solve daily-life problems! nature.com/articles/d41586-025-03045-0

Truly happy to see that our Italian colleagues @mpipks.bsky.social won the IgNobel Prize for figuring out that the Cacio e Pepe sauce can easily phase separate and become clumpy! Very well deserved! Congrats to the team! 😀

Check our new preprint on active surface simulations of amoeboid migration! We show how this mode of migration can be mechanically guided by gradients in friction, viscosity, pressure, or confinement, and even by nearby cells. Work led by Hanna Gertack and Sebastian Aland. arxiv.org/abs/2509.11801

🤔Què tenen en comú l’Ou com balla i un àtom? 🎙️El Lluís Torner, fundador de l’ICFO ens ho explica! 👉 Escolta el 2n capítol de La utilitat del coneixement inútil! Amb el suport d’un Ajut FCRI 2025 @fcri.bsky.social @soctastaolletes.bsky.social youtube.com/shorts/Al5mY...

Very honored to receive this prize from the Spanish Physical Society! Thanks a lot to all my collaborators, who make this possible!

Bacteria are surrounded by water! New work @natphys.nature.com by @ricardalert.bsky.social @mpipks.bsky.social & collaborators @ Princeton University shows that water capillary forces organise bacterial colonies into gas, nematic streams, and droplet states. nature.com/articles/s41567-025-02965-y

Our paper about active crystals is now out @softmatter.rsc.org! During the revisions, we added a section about triangular lattices, on which the turn-towards or turn-away interactions can be frustrated. Check it out, and see the post below! pubs.rsc.org/en/content/a... bsky.app/profile/rica...

Has intentat ma fer un gelat casolà i no ha sortit tan cremós com esperaves? T'han quedat uns cristalls que et trinxen les dents? 🍦☀️ A la @soctastaolletes.bsky.social i a mi ens ha passat, però tenim la solució... youtube.com/shorts/hAXjP...

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...

New preprint! When forming a crystal, active particles that turn either towards or away from each other end up aligning along directions determined by the crystalline lattice. In these active crystals, orientational and positional order are coupled. Work by Till Welker! arxiv.org/abs/2506.16501

🐠🦠Why can’t bacteria swim like fish? At microscopic scales, physics changes — viscosity rules! Researchers at our institute study how microbes like E. coli overcome this challenge with clever strategies like run-and-tumble. Watch our new video: youtu.be/drwCRRD7CGY?...

😊 I had so much fun making this video for @mpipks.bsky.social! Loved learning from Christina Kurzthaler how bacteria swim: it’s weird, clever, and totally different from what you'd expect! ✨I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

👉 New paper @physrevlett.bsky.social! Active nematics flow spontaneously, driven by their own constituents, e.g. molecular motors or cells. The transition to spontaneous flows was thought to be always continuous. We now discovered that it can also be discontinuous! journals.aps.org/prl/abstract...

😊 I had the pleasure to turn this exciting @cellpress.bsky.social paper into a video-abstract. Check it out! youtu.be/0REvwcuOao8 Thanks to the authors for writing the script and to @hymanlab.bsky.social and to @mpi-cbg.de for sharing it!

🎉 SO EXCITED to share this video I made about this super interesting research by @hymanlab.bsky.social at @mpi-cbg.de 🧪 They identified a molecule that can dissolve pathological stress granules associated with diseases like ALS!

We did it! 🎉 🍾🥂 Our Excellence Cluster Physics of Life (PoL) got renewed until 2032! I am so proud of our team and all the great work we did to achieve this.

We're thrilled to announce that our Excellence Cluster Physics of Life (PoL) has been renewed for a second funding phase (2026-2032) by @dfg.de ! Thanks to everyone who made this possible! 🎉👏 We'll continue our cutting-edge research towards understanding what brings matter to life! #biophysics #dfg

New preprint! Non-reciprocal interactions don’t arise from a potential. Yet, we found a way to encode them in a Hamiltonian, which captures the phase transitions of non-reciprocal systems! With Yubo Shi, Roderich Moessner, and @marinbukov.bsky.social @mpipks.bsky.social. arxiv.org/pdf/2505.05246

How do cells rotate together on a sphere? In our new video abstract, we describe our recent work on how cells move on the surface of a sphere—as they do in development, wound healing, or regeneration. www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2Rn...

✨So excited to share this! I had the pleasure of producing this video for the @mpipks.bsky.social about a recent paper on how cells rotate together on a sphere 🧫🪩 👉Check it out, it's a beautiful blend of physics and biology!

Check out our new work @natcomms.nature.com! @mayorlab.bsky.social discovered that cells perform durotaxis even without focal adhesions. How? Well, we found that they actually follow friction gradients — a new mode of directed cell migration that we call frictiotaxis! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Our call for Postdoc Positions in Biological Physics is open! Join our exciting and stimulating environment, with a rich variety of groups to collaborate. Deadline for applications is 2nd of May! Apply here: www.pks.mpg.de/biological-p...

🧲✨ Ever wondered what makes magnets magnetic, or how superconductivity works? 🎥 Check out our new video by @marionamec.bsky.social, where the group of @awietek.bsky.social at @mpipks.bsky.social dives into these and other fascinating states of matter! With support of @dfg.de youtu.be/nY9_dIpJoJM?...

New paper @naturecomms.bsky.social! How do cells form new layers? In colonies of the motile bacterium Myxo, we find that layer formation is triggered by very strong fluctuations in traction forces. They are an order of magnitude larger than the average! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

New preprint! When and how do active flows become turbulent? We found that, in unconfined active nematics, the transition to turbulence is discontinuous! With @the-chaotician.bsky.social @mpipks.bsky.social arxiv.org/abs/2501.060...

Check out this call for ELBE postdoc fellowships at the Center for Systems Biology Dresden! They are meant for independent postdocs driving theory-experiment collaborations @mpicbg.bsky.social and @mpipks.bsky.social. Please apply before February 14th!

Let’s understand collective cell migration by breaking it down to its essential elements! I'm Leone Rossetti, and this is a thread showcasing what we can learn from cells journeying along narrow paths, and from the forces they generate. 1/ #EpithelialMechanics

Cells are strong & generate forces while interacting with their environment. Traction Force Microscopy has been instrumental in measuring these forces, revealing the underlying mechanics. Let's explore pioneering papers in this 🧵by @onenimesa.bsky.social & @juliaeckert.bsky.social