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How the cells break symmetry and organize their edge activity to move directionally is a fun- damental question in cell biology. Physical models of cell motility commonly rely on gradients of regulatory factors and/or feedback from the…
Wrinkles often emerge on a paint layer when a second coat of paint is applied on an already-coated substrate. Wrinkle formation occurs when the first layer absorbs organic solvent from the second layer. We set up experiments to mimic the…
We report experimental and theoretical results on spatiotemporal pattern formation in cell populations, where the parameters vary in space and time due to mechanisms intrinsic to the system, namely Dictyostelium discoideum (D.d.) in the…
Microbial populations generally evolve in volatile environments, under conditions fluctuating between harsh and mild, e.g. as the result of sudden changes in toxin concentration or nutrient abundance. Environmental variability thus shapes…
Flow through porous media can reshape the medium through erosion and deposition, producing preferential flow channels across a wide range of natural and industrial systems. Yet the mechanisms by which spatial disorder triggers…
Turing patterns are fundamental in biophysics, emerging from short-range activation and long-range inhibition processes. However, their paradigm is based on diffusive transport processes, which yields Turing patters that are less sharp than…
Chemotaxis-driven invasions have been proposed across a broad spectrum of biological processes, from cancer to ecology. The influential system of equations introduced by Keller and Segel has proven a popular choice in the modelling of such…
Cell membranes are studded with protrusions that were thoroughly analyzed with electron microscopy. However, the nanometer-scale three-dimensional motions generated by cell membranes to fit the topography of foreign surfaces and initiate…
Species introductions promote secondary contacts between taxa with long histories of allopatric divergence. Anthropogenic contact zones thus offer valuable contrasts to speciation studies in natural systems where past spatial isolations may…
Spatial patterning and synchronization are pervasive features of plankton communities, yet the mechanisms that allow such patterns to persist coherently under environmental noise remain unresolved. In vertically structured aquatic…
Cell polarization and directional cell migration can display random, persistent and oscillatory dynamic patterns. However, it is not clear if these polarity patterns can be explained by the same underlying regulatory mechanism. Here, we…
In nature, structural colour generation is based on discriminative light propagation associated with physical structures in the range of the wavelengths of light1. These iridescent structural colours are of immense significance2 but not…
Formation of nanoscale laser-induced periodic surface structures on thin metal films (of the size of the optical penetration depth) is a yet unexplored area that is expected to open new routes for laser patterning and a wealth of exciting…
In this paper we consider the effects of the interaction between droplets or other deformable objects in an emulsion under random stirring of the host fluid. Our main interest is to obtain autocorrelation functions of the shape fluctuations…
Droplets confined in a microfluidic channel often exhibit intriguing shapes, primarily attributable to complex hydrodynamic interactions over small scales. We show that effect of varied substrate wettability conditions may further…
Bacteria commonly inhabit porous environments such as host tissues, soil, and marine sediments, where complex geometries constrain and redirect their motion. Although bacterial motility has been studied in porous media, the roles of cell…
The self-assembly of photonic nanostructures in insects involves chitin, proteins, and lipids. While synthetic photonic systems have been extensively studied, current lipid-based self-assembly systems are limited in periodicity to…
Young stars are highly variable in the X-ray regime. In particular, bright X-ray flares can substantially enhance ionization in the surrounding protoplanetary disk. Since disk chemical evolution is impacted by ionization, X-ray flares have…
Growing experimental evidence shows that cell monolayers can induce long-lived perturbations to their environment, akin to footprints, which in turn influence the global dynamics of the system. Inspired by these observations, we propose a…
A detailed understanding of the interface between living cells and substrate materials is of rising importance in many fields of medicine, biology and biotechnology. Cells at interfaces often form epithelia. The physical barrier that they…