Joel Marthelot

Appreciate Quanta for shining a light on our joint work with Simon Gsell, Sham Tlili (@shamtlili.bsky.social), and Matthias Merkel (@merkellab.bsky.social).

Did you know you can manipulate hundreds of microparticles using phototactic algae?
This is what we show in our last preprint, led by T. Laroussi and J. Bouvard: arxiv.org/abs/2509.08133
🧵👇

🍀🔬

MSL10 is a high-sensitivity mechanosensor in the tactile sense of the Venus flytrap @natcomms.nature.com from Toyota lab.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Psst, your students want to hang out in Boulder next July. Application deadline is Jan. 15.

www.colorado.edu/conference/b...

Kirigami-inspired parachute deploying to slow down the delivery of a water bottle from a drone. Credit: Frédérick Gosselin

A paper in Nature shows that parachute designs inspired by kirigami — the Japanese art of paper cutting to produce 3D designs — are stable and fall close to their target. These findings could simplify parachute manufacturing, reduce costs, and improve accuracy. go.nature.com/473OMmK 🧪

Parachutes inspired by the Japanese art of kirigami Cutting a pattern into a flat disc can transform it into a parachute capable of carrying small payloads, which might be used to deliver humanitarian aid

Cutting a pattern into a flat disc can transform it into a parachute capable of carrying small payloads

go.nature.com/4nsKfA7

A ring of cells deforms into a triangular keyhole in just 15 minutes. Meet the hindgut, a model for boundary-driven morphogenesis!

Out now in @pnas.org at doi.org/10.1073/pnas... with @zhaoshh.bsky.social, Alex Jacinto, Eric Wieschaus, Stas Shvartsman, @lepuslapis.bsky.social (1/8)

New paper on precise tool use learning in carrion crows @currentbiology.bsky.social. We show that—like New Caledonian crows—expert carrion crows pay close attention to the working end of their tool, suggesting tool integration into their peripersonal space. 🧵 & vids! 👇

www.cell.com/current-biol...

Flagellar gliding in choanoflagellates Freire-Delgado and Brunet discover a new mode of cell motility in choanoflagellates, the closest relatives of animals. Under mild confinement, choanoflagellate move over surfaces without cell deformat...

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 🧵

New #preprint: "Control of lumen morphology by lateral and basal cell surfaces", a great #biophysics collaboration with Chandraniva Guha Ray, @markusmukenhirn.bsky.social, Alf Honigmann @biotec-tud.bsky.social @poldresden.bsky.social.

arxiv.org/abs/2509.04316

@mpipks.bsky.social @mpi-cbg.de

Mechanical forces drive evolutionary change A small tissue fold present in fruit fly embryos buffers mechanical stresses and may have evolved in response to mechanical forces.

Dresden researchers @paveltomancak.bsky.social @bruvellu.bsky.social, Carl Modes, @cuencam15.bsky.social ‬ & colleagues published in @nature.com that a tissue fold in fruit fly embryos buffers mechanical stresses & may have evolved in response to mechanical forces. www.mpi-cbg.de/news-outreac...

Programmed seasonal brain shrinkage in the common shrew via water loss without cell death Brain plasticity, the brain’s inherent ability to adapt its structure and function, is crucial for responding to environmental challenges but is usual…

The secret to shrew brain shrinkage? 🤔
Not cell loss, but water loss!
Our new paper shows that brain cells shrink by losing water, a wild feat of brain plasticity 🤯

Check the paper!
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

@mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social @labdavalos.bsky.social @batichica.bsky.social

New preprint! 🚨 We uncover a slow adaptation to stretch that links star-bundling of keratin filaments with nuclear escape from its keratin cage. Led by @tomgolde.bsky.social‬ 🙌
@IBECBarcelona
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

We learned a lot about plant cell wall mechanics by stretching the Arabidopsis epidermis. Now published in
‪@natcomms.nature.com‬ Fibrous network nature of plant cell walls enables tunable mechanics for development
doi.org/10.1038/s414...

Honeybees adapt to a range of comb cell sizes by merging, tilting, and layering their construction Honeybees often need to build their comb under conditions that prevent a regular hexagonal lattice. This study uses 3D printed panels and X-ray microscopy to explore their adaptive process when differ...

How do #honeybees adapt their comb-building to different spatial constraints? A new study from @oritpeleg.bsky.social &co uses 3D printed panels and X-ray microscopy to reveal the existence of three distinct construction modes, from tilting cells to building complex 3D structures.🧪
plos.io/4n1g6Hs

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

Close-up of experimental honeycombs built after a challenging 3D printed setup, showing mostly hexagonal cells.

New paper in PLOS Biology: as we raise the difficulty of our 3D printed puzzles, bees keep landing on combs with ever stranger hexagonal order! 🐝

Led by the brilliant Golnar Gharooni Fard, in collaboration with CK Prasanna & FL Jiménez

journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

Ultrafast elastocapillary fans control agile maneuvering in ripple bugs and robots Rhagovelia ripple bugs use specialized middle-leg fans with a flat-ribbon architecture to navigate the surfaces of fast-moving streams. We show that the fan’s directional stiffness enables fast, passi...

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/...

🚰 Fluid inertia limits microporous flow efficiency, out in EPJ Plus this week, with Kaare Jensen @jensen-research.bsky.social‬ rdcu.be/eBV2C 👇

My small contribution to the popularization of evolutionary biology during the #ESEB2025 week, thanks to this article on the evolution of rose breeding in The Conversation France.
If you read French, here it is: theconversation.com/comment-le-c...
If not, our Genetics paper: doi.org/10.1093/gene...

Flower-like origami patterns could inspire folding spacecraft Engineers have developed a class of origami structures that unfold in one smooth motion to create flower-like shapes, which could have applications in space

These gorgeous origami shapes - an entirely new family called bloom patterns - could be used to design new, more effective space telescopes or solar panels.

www.newscientist.com/article/2493...

On the left is a rabbit. On the right is an elephant. But guess what: They’re the *same image*, rotated 90°!

In @currentbiology.bsky.social, @chazfirestone.bsky.social & I show how these images—known as “visual anagrams”—can help solve a longstanding problem in cognitive science. bit.ly/45BVnCZ

Title page of the review article 'The Physics of Sensing and Decision-Making by Animal Groups' by Danielle L. Chase and Orit Peleg in Annual Review of Biophysics. Includes illustrations of collective behavior in honeybees: a diagram showing uncommitted scout bees transitioning through decision-making to choose between two nest sites; a honeybee on a honeycomb cell; a cluster of bees hanging from a branch; and a schematic of bees forming a layered cluster.

More on collective behavior: Our new Annual Review of Biophysics piece - with the stellar Danielle Chase - explores how animals sense, share information, and make group decisions. In honeybees and beyond 🐝

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

A switch to non-proliferative growth sustains Drosophila wing development during the early pupal stage Using precise tissue volume quantification, El Marzkioui, Gaugué, et al. show that wing primordia continue to grow during the early pupal stage, a phase of increased cell volume driven by insulin/IGF ...

Our new paper is out in @currentbiology.bsky.social! Using 3D reconstructions and volume measurements in Drosophila wing primordia, we show that growth can be uncoupled from cell proliferation and uncover a new time window for growth arrest.
With @leopoldlab.bsky.social
www.cell.com/current-biol...

Tissue bending through localized BM growth or dissolution.

Alteration in tissue morphology by intrinsic stresses in an assembling BM network.

Branching morphogenesis driven by localized deposition of interstitial matrix.

Asymmetric tissue expansion through anisotropic BM remodeling.

Maybe it's time we rethink the idea that development is a cell centric process? In this beautiful review, María-del-Carmen and @stramerlab.bsky.social discussed how the ECM underlies and influences many morphogenesis processes from wing unfolding to mammary gland development.
doi.org/10.1016/j.cd...

Very happy that the first article from my postdoc work in the Tomancak lab is now published @PNAS! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/.... We studied the self-organization of actin in aggregates made from Hydra cells. Thread below (1/9)

#Activematter research by Marine Le Blay, Joshua Saldi & Alexandre Morin from @unileiden.bsky.social published in @natphys.nature.com ! Read more: edu.nl/btmta. @leidenscience.bsky.social #physics

Stretching the immortal Hydra Dresden researchers show how cells can create a new organism from scratch by coordinating their mechanical properties.

Stretching the immortal Hydra. Publication by @paveltomancak.bsky.social group with Carl Modes @mpi-cbg.de & @zechnerlab.bsky.social shows how cells can create a new organism from scratch by coordinating their mechanical properties. @anaisbailles.bsky.social @pnas.org www.mpi-cbg.de/news-outreac...

Capillary interactions drive the self-organization of bacterial colonies - Nature Physics Bacteria tend to live in thin layers of water on surfaces. Now the capillary forces in these layers are shown to help organize the bacteria into dense packs.

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...

Insect X-Men: Helmets help these odd bugs sense electric fields Ability may help treehoppers distinguish friend from foe

About 3200 insect species around the world have evolved a structure on their back called a helmet.

But the appendage isn’t just for show: It allows for the detection of electric fields—perhaps helping them distinguish friend from foe. scim.ag/46xid0Y