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Supported Lipid Bilayers (SLBs) are model membranes formed at solid substrate surfaces. This architecture renders the membrane experimentally accessible to surface sensitive techniques used to study their properties, including Atomic Force…
Venus and Earth are similar in bulk properties yet followed dramatically different climatic trajectories. Reconstructing Venus's climate evolution requires understanding how rotation, obliquity, eccentricity, and solar luminosity shaped…
Few spacecraft have studied the dynamics of Venus' deep atmosphere, which is needed to understand the interactions between the surface and atmosphere. Recent global simulations suggest a strong effect of the diurnal cycle of surface winds…
Liquid is a fundamental requirement for life as we understand it, but whether that liquid has to be water is not known. We propose the hypothesis that ionic liquids (ILs) and deep eutectic solvents (DES) constitute a class of non-aqueous…
In addition to the biologically active monomer of the protein Insulin circulating in human blood, the molecule also exists in dimeric and hexameric forms that are used as storage. The Insulin monomer contains two distinct surfaces, namely…
Atmospheric tides can strongly affect the rotational dynamics of planets. In the family of Earth-like planets, such as Venus, this physical mechanism coupled with solid tides makes the angular velocity evolve over long timescales and…
The depletion of SO$_2$ and H$_2$O in and above the clouds of Venus (45 -- 65 km) cannot be explained by known gas-phase chemistry and the observed composition of the atmosphere. We apply a full-atmosphere model of Venus to investigate…
The recent advancements in exoplanet observations enable the potential detection of exo-Venuses, rocky planets with carbon-rich atmospheres. How extended these atmospheres can be, given high carbon abundances, has not been studied. To…
The rapid emergence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacteria demands development of novel and effective antimicrobial agents. Structurally Nanoengineered Antimicrobial Peptide Polymers (SNAPPs), characterized by their unique star-shaped…
The current goals of the astrobiology community are focused on developing a framework for the detection of biosignatures, or evidence thereof, on objects inside and outside of our solar system. A fundamental aspect of understanding the…
The design of complex materials and the formation of specific patterns often arise from the properties of the individual building blocks. In this respect, colloidal systems offer a unique opportunity because nowadays they can be synthesized…
Several methods now exist to solvate lipid bilayer discoids at the scale of tens of nanometres. Due to their size, such nanodiscoids have a comparatively large boundary-to-area ratio, making them unusually well-suited to probing the effects…
We consider thin spherical shells of matter in both Newtonian gravity and general relativity, and examine their equilibrium configurations and dynamical stability. Thin-shell models are admittedly a poor substitute for realistic stellar…
Vesicle fusion is an important process underlying cell division, transport, and membrane trafficking. In phospholipid systems, a range of fusogens including divalent cations and depletants have been shown to induce adhesion, hemifusion, and…
Motivated by old experiments on colloidal suspensions, we report molecular dynamics simulations of assemblies of hard spheres, addressing crystallization and glass formation. The simulations cover wide ranges of polydispersity s (standard…
Biological membranes are known to form various structural motifs, from lipid bilayers to tubular filaments and networks facilitating e.g. adhesion and cell-cell communication. To understand the biophysical processes underpinning lipid-lipid…
Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is thought to be an important sulfur reservoir in interstellar ices. It serves as a key precursor to complex sulfur-bearing organics, and has been proposed to play a significant role in the origin of life. Although…
Traditionally stellar radiation has been the only heat source considered capable of determining global climate on long timescales. Here we show that terrestrial exoplanets orbiting low-mass stars may be tidally heated at high enough levels…
The recently discovered transiting super-Earth LP 890-9 c is potentially one of the best rocky exoplanets for atmospheric characterization. Orbiting an ultracool M-dwarf at the inner edge of the habitable zone, LP 890-9 c offers a new…
The Stratum Corneum (SC), the outermost layer of skin, comprises rigid corneocytes (keratin filled dead cells) in a specialized lipid matrix. The continuous lipid matrix provides the main barrier against uncontrolled water loss and invasion…