Giacomo Bartolucci (he)
@gbart.bsky.social
https://giacobarto.github.io/ I love biophysics, jazz, poetry, and activism, especially when mixed together! Into phase separation, and active nematics. JdC postdoc at University of Barcelona, previously at MPI PKS Dresden and Uni Augsburg
Was a pleasure and an honour to deliver a lectio magistralis at the University of Trento, where I did my master 🥹🥹 I shared my research journey on the phase behaviour of liquid mixtures such as the cytoplasm, the primordial soup and, of course, the cacio e pepe sauce! Here's an clip (in Italian)
La termodinamica delle miscele liquide, dalla biologia cellulare alla cucina italiana-G. Bartolucci
YouTube video by UniTrento Fisica
youtu.be
Our paper on a Hamiltonian description of non-reciprocal interactions is out @natphys.nature.com! With Yubo Shi, Roderich Moessner, and @marinbukov.bsky.social @mpipks.bsky.social @ub.edu @icreacommunity.bsky.social Check it out, and read more in the thread below! 👇 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Hamiltonian description of non-reciprocal interactions - Nature Physics
Many active and driven systems exhibit non-reciprocal interactions, making them hard to describe with standard methods. Now a constrained Hamiltonian embedding with auxiliary variables reproduces thes...
nature.com
Ricard Alert Zenón@ricardalert.bsky.social · last yr.New preprint! Non-reciprocal interactions don’t arise from a potential. Yet, we found a way to encode them in a Hamiltonian, which captures the phase transitions of non-reciprocal systems! With Yubo Shi, Roderich Moessner, and @marinbukov.bsky.social @mpipks.bsky.social. arxiv.org/pdf/2505.05246
We are excited to announce another new webinar series, this time on cell migration, hosted by @pjsaez.bsky.social & @valeriaventurini.bsky.social. In our 1st webinar, we’ll hear talks from @juanmagararc.bsky.social, @kyohalie.bsky.social & @djcohen.bsky.social. 🗓️11 June, 15:00 BST
New webinar series on cell migration - FocalPlane
New webinar series on cell migration - News
focalplane.biologists.com
Researchers have identified superparamagnetic macrophages in the livers of rock pigeons to be crucial for magnetic sensing. The finding uncovers an unexpected role for immune cells in sensory perception and may fundamentally change our understanding of animal navigation. https://scim.ag/4nTQ3nq
Another incredible chapter of this cheesy story: @vicioms.bsky.social Ivan and Daniel wrote a piece about the physics of cacio e pepe that got to the cover of @physicstoday.aip.org!! physicstoday.aip.org/quick-study/...
How does phase separation, a key mechanism of equilibrium self-organization, interact with nonlinear nonequilibrium dynamics? In our paper with Jonathan Bauermann and Giacomo Bartolucci @gbart.bsky.social, we look at phase separation in chemical oscillators journals.aps.org/prl/abstrac...
Congrats to Dr. @ivarhaugerud.bsky.social who just defended his PhD AND published in PNAS his work studying how droplets influence polymerization of sequences, while, in turn, sequence polymerization affects droplet dynamics! With @m-pol.bsky.social + Dieter Braun www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Active droplets are fundamental in cell biology and origin of life. With Jonathan Bauermann, @boekhovenlab.bsky.social, Frank Jülicher, and @m-pol.bsky.social, we show that a critical transition influences their size, morphology, ripening and division propensity journals.aps.org/prx/abstract...
A biologist at the American Museum of Natural History, Jonathan Coddington, cataloged a new genus of South American spiders in 1986. Two things about the spider were unique: they lived in caves & laid cubic eggs. So he called them genus 'Plato', and that's the nerdiest thing I have read all year.
Bea Leiderman@bealeiderman.bsky.social · 9mo agoDiminutive fairy wombat poop. Tiny cubes under 2mm on each side. These are egg sacs made by a spider in the family Theridiosomatidae. They made yesterday’s hike special. Finding something I’ve never seen before is such a thrill. 🌱 #nature #macro #spider
Exciting News! 🥳 Our Epithelial Mechanics Fan Club website is now live! 🎉 👉 epithelialmechanics.github.io Discover our #EpithelialMechanics threads and get to know our amazing delegates behind them. Would you like to share your story? Please DM us!
epithelial mechanics fan club@epimechfc.bsky.social · 10mo ago🎉🎉 We finally have a website! 🎉🎉 Did you miss a thread? Want to know who our delegates are? Do you want to join our big club? Check it out: epithelialmechanics.github.io Huge thanks to all thread-contributors and to you for following us!
On cell extrusion in the #intestine! After 80 years of observations, we finally took a deeper look thanks to 2D #organoids. We report: 3D #forces, #extrusion still only in the villus even without curvature, #lamellipodia generate 3D force.. and more. Have a look! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Good news in rough times: Our work on generalising Lifshitz-Slyosov-Wagner (LSW) theory to active systems, led by the all-mighty Jonathan Bauermann, is out on PRL!! Special thanks to Christoph Weber @m-pol.bsky.social and Frank Jülicher. doi-org.sire.ub.edu/10.1103/f5x9...
Ever wondered how to control stretch/compression in your epithelial system? Do you know why it’s important, which mechanotransduction mechanisms could be involved? I am @valeriaventurini.bsky.social and today I will guide you through this journey.
Great to see the role of phase separation in the culinary world being recognised. 🧀🍝 A huge congratulations to @gbart.bsky.social and collaborators!
Giacomo Bartolucci (he)@gbart.bsky.social · 11mo agoStill can't believe this: WE WON THE IG NOBEL PHYSICS PRIZE www.washingtonpost.com/science/2025...
Can't wait to see you at UB!
Ricard Alert Zenón@ricardalert.bsky.social · 11mo agoWarm goodbye to Dresden's @mpipks.bsky.social, my scientific home for the past 4 years. It's been amazing to start my group here! Thanks to the Max Planck Society, group members and everyone at the institute! Looking forward to the new chapter in Barcelona @ub.edu
Truly chuffed for our fearless food physicists @mpipks.bsky.social + collabs from AT @istaresearch.bsky.social, IT & ES who won this year’s Ig Nobel - the #NobelPrize of hearts❤️for cracking the science of perfect pasta !🍝Kudos to all for intrepidly consuming lots of cheese in the name of science!😋
The Secret to a Smooth Pasta Sauce Wins Ig Nobel Prize
Italian researchers studied how the ingredients of the traditional Roman dish cacio e pepe emulsify into a creamy sauce, winning the 2025 Physics Ig Nobel Prize.
the-scientist.com
Still can't believe this: WE WON THE IG NOBEL PHYSICS PRIZE www.washingtonpost.com/science/2025...
With painted cows and a perfect pasta sauce, ‘Ig Nobel’ winners claim glory
Some of the world’s most imaginative scientific minds have been celebrated at the Ig Nobel awards, which recognize discoveries that make people “laugh, then think.”
washingtonpost.com
Amazing!!! 🧪 The 2025 Ig Nobel prize goes to scientists from the @mpipks.bsky.social for discovering a bullet proof version to make the classic pasta alla cacio e pepe! Including a deep understanding of the pasta sauce in terms of phase separation physics 😃 Congrats @gbart.bsky.social et al! Links👇
IG Nobel Prize in #Physics 2025 to @mpipks.bsky.social researchers for elucidating the phase behaviour of cacio e pepe sauce. The work highlights how physics can also be applied to solve daily-life problems! nature.com/articles/d41586-025-03045-0
Tipsy bats and perfect pasta: Ig Nobels celebrate ‘improbable’ research
The annual awards are a celebration of weird but thought-provoking science.
nature.com
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...
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.
nature.com
Proud of this preprint with my friends Jonathan Bauermann and @artemyte.bsky.social, about chemical oscillators & phase separation! Main findings: 1. Phase separation controls frequency and amplitude of oscillations 2. If reactions are fast, spirals of droplets emerge! arxiv.org/abs/2507.16030
"Phase behaviour of Cacio e Pepe sauce" got published in Physics of Fluids as part of the "kitchen flows" series! An important addition to the preprint is the analysis of trisodium citrate preventing clumps What a crazy journey, thanks everyone for the support!! pubs.aip.org/aip/pof/arti...
Phase behavior of Cacio e Pepe sauce
“Pasta alla Cacio e pepe” is a traditional Italian dish made with pasta, pecorino cheese, and pepper. Despite its simple ingredient list, achieving the perfect
pubs.aip.org
🎉Visit our COSMO event this Friday 🎉 Calling all music and science lovers! @jesseveenvliet.bsky.social from @mpi-cbg.de will give a fascinating talk on how new stem cell models shed light on the fundamentals of life, followed by a musical journey from the 80s to now. Learn more: tud.link/fktb9k
How can organs regenerate fast? Bioelectricity helps -- by coupling sub-second electrical injury signals to regenerative proliferation. First preprint from my potsdoc :D with @liujinghui.bsky.social @ritamateus.bsky.social @mpi-cbg.de and collaborators @mpipks.bsky.social @csbdresden.bsky.social
bioRxivpreprint@biorxivpreprint.bsky.social · last yr.Injury-induced electrochemical coupling triggers regenerative cell proliferation https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.03.647033v1
Whaaat?! Cell-estial Bloom took 1st place in the Node–FocalPlane image competition! 🤯🤯🤯
the Node@the-node.bsky.social · last yr.🎉Congratulations to the Top 3 images from the Node–FocalPlane image competition! 1️⃣"Cell-estial bloom" by @oozguc.bsky.social 2️⃣"Dancing actinotroch" by @allancarbal.bsky.social 3️⃣"Who’s active?" by @jupeloggia.bsky.social thenode.biologists.com/results-from... @focalplane.bsky.social #biologists100
"Cacio e pepe" physics: In arxiv.org/abs/2501.00536v1, eight Italian scientists from the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems explain the physics behind a perfect dish of "cacio e pepe" and how to eschew the dreaded "mozzarella phase" - work featured @nytimes.com.
Thanks everyone for the immense interest and great feedback on our preprint! We are super happy (and a bit shocked) that a simple project developed among friends had such a resonance ending up in the New York Times and BBC! @ivanditerlizzi.bsky.social @vicioms.bsky.social @dmbusiello.bsky.social
Quotation of the Day: The Perfect Cacio e Pepe Recipe Does Exist. Just Ask Scientists.
Quotation of the Day for Saturday, January 25, 2025.
nytimes.com
1/n Some time ago my colleague, excellent cook, and friend Ivan told me: "Cacio e pepe is the recipe that I screw up more often. Let's make a project studying systematically the physics of that sauce". Prepare to get cheesy, I'm glad to share the Cacio e paper preprint: arxiv.org/abs/2501.00536
Biomolecular condensate starter pack! Trying to compile & to bring together biomolecular condensate enthusiasts & critics! Please join this non-exhaustive (sorry!) collection & just ping me for addition. #condensates, #phaseseparation, #granules, #IDPs go.bsky.app/NFqmffa
