Amir Pahlavan

In stratified fluids, small porous particles can settle faster than large ones. In linear stratification, the settling rate is set by the solute absorption rate. New predictions and experiments in our latest work out today in @pnas.org.

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Squid study sparks interdisciplinary insight into the physics of growth Often, physics can be used to make sense of the natural world, whether it's understanding gravitational effects on ocean tides or using powerful physics tools, like microscopes, to examine the inner w...

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Squids are awesome!

Here's a very interesting example of how studying living systems reveals new phenomena and regimes of physics. In this case packing and order. Work from the group of @simonepigolotti.bsky.social at the @oistedu.bsky.social

phys.org/news/2025-06...

New paper out in @pnas.org

We followed cells migrating along signalling gradients in 3D, and found they collectively behave as a living droplet - a self-propelling fluid that grows.

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Our paper on hyperdisordered packing is out! Chromatophore arrangement on squid skin reveals an exotic form of disordered packing, caused by the interplay of cell insertion and surface growth journals.aps.org/prx/abstract...

Predicting When Ketchup Will Start Flowing For a wide range of complex fluids, the transition from solid-like at rest to liquid-like when pushed can be predicted from properties of the at-rest state.

Researchers have shown that the point at which ketchup, toothpaste, and other complex fluids undergo a solid-to-liquid transition can be predicted from the properties of the substance while it is still a solid. The insight could guide the control of this industrially important class of fluids.

www.quantamagazine.org/finding-beau...

An open letter to graduate students and other procrastinators: it’s time to write Nature Biotechnology - An open letter to graduate students and other procrastinators: it’s time to write

About the importance of writing and how to do it; nice, short article in Nature Biotechnology, and not just for graduate students.

rdcu.be/ee4Vt

Excited to share our new paper in @pnas.org doi.org/10.1073/pnas...! Ice cubes often appear cloudy because, as water freezes, air bubbles get trapped and scatter light. But how does freezing rate affect the shape of the bubbles?

Thanks Saverio! Last time I used Q was to quantify vortices in bacterial suspensions in a work with David Saintillan almost 15 years ago!!

Our work on solute-mediated colloidal vortices and focusing is now out in PRL. doi.org/10.1103/Phys...

We (Marco Mazza, @jcammann.bsky.social, Hannah Laeverenz-Schlogelhofer and I) just posted a review on the physics of biological filaments across scales, enjoy! doi.org/10.48550/arX...

Advertisement for an advanced course in Udine, Italy 🇮🇹 this summer ☀️. Learn about mechanics for the fabrication and programming of soft robots 🦑. cism.it/en/activities/…
organized along with @joelmarthelot.bsky.social

By volume, Lake Baikal is the world's largest lake, holding over 20% of the planet's fresh water. It's also a major carbon sink, holding large amounts of methane. That's the gas trapped in the frozen bubbles seen here.
fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=22627

Morphogenetic movements reshape cell-cell interaction ranges, quantified as Embryological Light Cones (ELCs). These ELCs are highly different from the corresponding static tissue patterning ELCs.

📣Check out our work led by @alex-plum.bsky.social ! We developed a mathematical framework for morphogen patterning in dynamic tissues, revealing key insights into how morphogenesis mediates cell-cell communication, morphogen compartmentalization and fate coordination. biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Our Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics is now accessible for free! find out how to make a jellyfish smoothy 🪼, or how to cross a river without a bridge 🪵... thanks @annualreviews.bsky.social for make this volume open!

www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

Compressing slippery surface-assembled amphiphiles for tunable haptic energy harvesters Molecules that self-organize into slippery planes are used to engineer functional and comfortable energy harvesters.

Our paper on using small molecules that self-assemble on polymer surfaces to engineer wearable energy harvesters is out today in Science Advances! Learn about how scaling analysis and fundamental soft matter can impact technology. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

📣 Excited to receive the 💥 NSF CAREER 💥 Award. Our group is looking for PhD students and postdocs interested in the Nonlinear Dynamics and the Physics of Living Systems, with support from NSF, HFSP, and other sources. We’d appreciate your help in spreading the word! @ucsdphysci.bsky.social

The abstract submission deadline is today (Jan 13th)! So far, we have contributions on topics ranging from microvasculature, cells and tissues to biofilms! Looking forward to a great session on "Living Porous Media"! lnkd.in/eafFBRE9

New preprint out on self-propelling melting ice blocks arxiv.org/abs/2412.16010. This work was led by Michael Berhanu and it was a pleasure to be a part off along with AmitDawadi at ClarkUniversity, and Martin Chaigne, and Jerome Jovet at University Paris Cite.

The abstract submission deadline is in 3 days! Monday, Jan 6th! Looking forward to a great session on "Living Porous Media"! events.interpore.org/event/56/

Image source: https://www.empireonline.com/movies/features/last-action-hero

Here’s a Christmas present for y’all: a new physics post! I’ve done these things on “the other side”—let’s see how many people are interested on 🦋!

I’ll be talking about a famous principle in classical mechanics: that of “least action.” And I’ll tell you why it’s a misnomer!

Buckle up!

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We invite you to submit an abstract to the Interpore 2025 Minisymposium Session on "Biophysics of Living Porous Media" to be held in Albuquerque, New Mexico, May 19-23 2025. The abstract submission deadline is Jan 6th midnight PST (events.interpore.org/event/56/pag...).

Fresh off the press, our work on wing deployment in Drosophila 🪰:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Work by: Simon Hadjaje, Ignacio Andrade-Silva, Marie-Julie Dalbe and Raphaël Clément

Bacterial rheotaxis is ENHANCED in non-Newtonian fluids! This work is in collaboration with Arnold Mathijssen and Albane Thery. Read more about our experiments and simulations in our new PNAS manuscript at pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
@sorheology.bsky.social @pnas.org

Thanks, Alban!

I wrote an invited commentary on the soil plastisphere for the InterPore Journal. The nexus of bacteria, biofilms, and microplastics has significant environmental implications with LOTS of unknowns and opportunities. ipjournal.interpore.org/index.php/in...

Second paper from our lab! Led by Mobin Alipour, we show phoretic migration due to solute gradients drastically changes the transport of colloids in porous media, even suppressing the influence of geometric disorder! arxiv.org/abs/2411.14712

Thanks, Paulo!

YouTube video by American Physical Society V-2641007: Chaotic Voyage of Colloids Through Salty Waters

Our Gallery of Fluid Motion Entry for the APS DFD meeting! Chaotic Voyage of Colloids Through Salty Waters! See you in Salt Lake City! www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoJ0... @apsphysics.bsky.social