Ayusman Sen

Ayusman Sen

@ayusmansen.bsky.social

Active autonomous systems; synthetic nano and micromotors; micropumps; nanotechnology, systems chemistry. https://sites.psu.edu/sengroup/ “It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future.” Yogi Berra

375 Followers 189 Following 112 Posts Joined Nov 2024
5 days ago

You and Jack rock, my friend 👍

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6 days ago
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So proud of him.

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5 days ago
YouTube
Nano-robots, Swarm Intelligence, Artificial Life & the future of healthcare: Prof. Ayusman Sen YouTube video by Ones Changing The World - 1CW

My podcast interview on nanobots: www.youtube.com/watch?v=W38Y...

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1 week ago
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Maxwell’s demon might lurk in enzyme behaviour The controversial process of enhanced enzyme diffusion could enable living systems to resist local equilibrium

Maxwell’s demon appeared to undermine the Second Law of thermodynamics by moving a system out of equilibrium. While there are flaws in that reasoning, enzymes may similarly help living systems to reach non-equilibrium conditions.

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2 weeks ago

Always loved this album!

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2 weeks ago
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Enhanced Diffusion of Single, Lipid-Tethered Enzymes Recent experimental evidence has shown that enzymes that catalyze exergonic reactions are able to diffuse faster during catalysis, a process called “enhanced diffusion”. If true, enzyme propulsion cou...

Nice work! Enhanced Diffusion of Single, Lipid-Tethered Enzymes | Nano Letters pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10....

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1 month ago
A bearded man in nurse's scrubs offers aid to Justice, wearing a blindfold and holding a sword and scales, who has fallen to her knees.

Street art memorializing Alex Pretti in Seattle. Per r/Seattle, it was painted on a building facing Swedish Hospital in the First Hill neighborhood www.reddit.com/r/nursing/co...

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1 month ago
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🧪🧠 New preprint out!
Soft Hardware, Flowing Software
We introduce reconfigurable microfluidics as an active control layer for chemical computation. Geometry, and flow, and not molecular redesign, programs function.
Great work by Piet!
chemrxiv.org/doi/full/10....

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1 month ago
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Science and Industry Need to Push Back Hard - TimmermanReport.com The days of strongly worded letters, statements to the press, white papers, and op-eds are over. The people dismantling science are coming at all we care about with a pliers and a blowtorch. If I have...

Powerful call to action from @cdelawalla.bsky.social founder of @standupforscience.bsky.social

timmermanreport.com/2026/01/scie...

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1 month ago
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Rest in Peace Alex Jeffrey Pretti🙏🏾 The VA ICU Nurses send him off right 💔

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1 month ago
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2 months ago
JACS Front Cover 
Vol 147/Issue 52
Week Commencing 29 Dec 2026

‘Droplets as Cell Models: Chemical Gradient-Induced Directional Filopodia Formation', has made it on the front cover of this week's #JACS!

Explore the research behind the art: buff.ly/s30uUR7

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2 months ago
https://pubs.acs.org/toc/jacsat/147/52:

Droplets hunting for “chemical treasures”: oil-in-water droplets reshape in response to chemical gradients (from the glowing treasure chest), recapitulating how living cells detect and grow toward or away from environmental cues. By understanding the forces driving this behavior, the authors aim to build synthetic versions of cellular life and gain deeper insight into matter-to-life transitions.

🎉🎉The art I designed is now featured on the Front Cover of @jacs.acspublications.org!🎉🎉
Grateful to my mentor @ayusmansen.bsky.social for encouraging creative ways to illustrate our science.
Check out the article: pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

#ActiveEmulsions #SoftMatter #MatterToLife #ScienceArt

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2 months ago
From Disappointing affirmations:

Do something nice for someone today.
Leave them alone.
Life is hard enough without your bullshit.

Happy New Year
#disappointingaffirmations

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2 months ago
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#NousICREAs2025 |💡@katherinevilla.bsky.social (@iciq.org) impulsa tecnologies sostenibles per afrontar els reptes ambientals i energètics globals.

Crea micromotors que es mouen amb llum i materials capaços de netejar contaminants i generar combustibles solars.

https://short.do/JYHhN1

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2 months ago
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We are on the front cover of the last issue of 2026! Thanks to the artistry of @sanjanakmani.bsky.social
and thank you @pubs.acs.org
Droplets as Cell Models: Chemical Gradient-Induced Directional Filopodia Formation | Journal of the American Chemical Society pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

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2 months ago
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@leecronin.bsky.social Are these droplets alive?

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2 months ago

There’s the Indian doctors I know who voted for him because he’s ’a businessman’ and he would lower their taxes.
There are the Indians I know who voted for him because ‘the gay agenda in schools have gone too far’. There are the Indians who voted for him because he was going to ‘cut immigration’

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2 months ago

Very cool! Suggests the possibility of intra-organelle navigation using pH gradients.

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3 months ago
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Droplets as Cell Models: Chemical Gradient-Induced Directional Filopodia Formation Cells are complex chemical systems capable of sensing and responding to environmental cues by dynamically reshaping themselves, e.g., by forming arm-like protrusions such as filopodia. Recapitulating cellular behavior in artificial systems is a long-standing goal in understanding the matter-to-life transition and designing responsive soft materials. Here, we use oil-in-water emulsions that mimic cellular environmental sensing and form directional arm-like filopodia in response to external chemical cues. Our work analyzes the step-by-step process involved in the formation of artificial filopodia, and we engineer ways to direct filopodia growth through different chemical gradients. The process is driven by asymmetric surfactant partitioning across the oil–water interface, followed by ordering at the interface to form lamellar structures, which are projected out as filopodia. We observe filopodia growing away from the source of kosmotropic anions and toward the source of chaotropic anions from the Hofmeister series. Significantly, these systems also respond to amino acid gradients, similar to cells: tryptophan gradients favor growth toward the source, while lysine and arginine gradients cause growth away from the amino acid source. Our findings open new avenues for fabricating life-like materials that sense and grow in response to external signals.

@acs.org has posted a Research Headline Video on our paper: www.youtube.com/shorts/LPFlI...
Droplets as Cell Models: Chemical Gradient-Induced Directional Filopodia Formation | Journal of the American Chemical Society pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

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3 months ago
Collette Delawalla, chief executive and founder, Stand up for Science, Decatur, Georgia.  She has been focusing on building resistance to the US Government's targeting of the nation's scientific enterprise ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. 

From Nature

🧵Congrats to @standupforscience.bsky.social activist and leader @cdelawalla.bsky.social for being named one to watch in science by Nature. The world’s leading science journal!

Well deserved!

www.nature.com/immersive/d4...

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3 months ago

As with Shakespeare, I always found myself coming out of a Stoppard play feeling more intelligent than when I went in.

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3 months ago

Biological organisms exhibit purposeful behavior that allows them to survive and persist. They can also be described as material patterns maintained by flows of energy and information. When and how do the concepts of agency and purpose emerge as meaningful descriptors of certain material systems?

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3 months ago

@philipcball.bsky.social @andrewbissette.bsky.social Is replication a strict requirement? What about a system that responds to the environment in ways that furthers its persistence. Does it not have "agency"? Is it alive?

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3 months ago
Make your donation now - Wikimedia Foundation Donate to the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit that hosts Wikipedia and other crucial free knowledge projects. Each year, the generosity of the 2% of readers who donate allows us to expand the reac...

Wikipedia is 25! If you use it all the time and want to protect a future where knowledge is human-made, join me and donate now: donate.wikipedia25.org #Wikipedia25

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3 months ago

Me too!

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3 months ago
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U.S. Congress considers sweeping ban on Chinese collaborations Researchers speak out against proposal that would bar funding for U.S. scientists working with Chinese partners or training Chinese students

“The prohibited activities would include joint research, co-authorship on papers, and advising a foreign graduate student or postdoctoral fellow. The language is retroactive, meaning any interactions during the previous 5 years could make a scientist ineligible for future federal funding.”

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4 months ago

RIP Jim Watson. You inspired many of us to pursue a life in research. I wish you had made it easier for us to celebrate your legacy.

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4 months ago

Congratulations, Job!!

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4 months ago

Congratulations, @sanjanakmani.bsky.social! Nice work!

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