Ricard Alert Zenón
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ricardalert.bsky.social
Ricard Alert Zenón
@ricardalert.bsky.social
960 followers 460 following 89 posts
Physics Professor at Universitat de Barcelona. Research Group Leader at MPI-PKS and CSBD in Dresden. Theory of living matter. Collective phenomena in biology through the lens of active matter physics.
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Reposted by Ricard Alert Zenón
gbart.bsky.social
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...
November 15, 2025 at 11:28 AM
Reposted by Ricard Alert Zenón
marionamec.bsky.social
🕵️ A qui t’agradaria conèixer? Amb quantes persones hi arribaries?
El Ricard Solé @ricardsole.bsky.social, investigador ICREA a @upf.edu ens ho explica al nostre pòdcast!

youtube.com/shorts/buG_R...
6 graus de separació #ciènciaencatalà #podcast #divulgaciócientífica #ciència
YouTube video by La Dimoni de Maxwell
youtube.com
November 15, 2025 at 8:20 PM
Reposted by Ricard Alert Zenón
marionamec.bsky.social
Escolta en nou capítol de La utilitat del coneixement inútil!
Quàntica, ordinadors i espanta sogres!!! 🎉🥳
soctastaolletes.bsky.social Cèlia Ventura i Gabarró @soctastaolletes.bsky.social · 21d
Nou capítol! 🔴

Parlem de quàntica i superordinadors, la @marionamec.bsky.social em peta la neurona, l'Alba Cervera ens explica què fa al @bsc-cns.bsky.social i descobrim que els espanta-sogres poden ser molt pesats 🥳

Amb la suport de la @fcri.bsky.social 💜

open.spotify.com/episode/6wJL...
T1C5 Quàntica, superordinadors i espanta-sogres, amb Alba Cervera i Lierta
Spotify video
open.spotify.com
October 28, 2025 at 6:59 AM
Reposted by Ricard Alert Zenón
davidbrueckner.bsky.social
🤔 Can tissue patterning & tumor heterogeneity emerge in a self-organized way?

We show that self-organized mechanical stress & density gradients pattern tumors in vitro & in vivo, and this behavior is quantitatively predicted by a mechano-chemical active fluid model!

Check out Carlos' thread ⬇️
cperez-gonzalez.bsky.social cperez-gonzalez.bsky.social @cperez-gonzalez.bsky.social · Oct 16
1/ 🎉Excited to share our new preprint @vignjeviclab.bsky.social @davidbrueckner.bsky.social :

"Self-organization of tumor heterogeneity and plasticity"
biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Tumor heterogeneity and plasticity drive metastasis and relapse. How is tumor patterning coordinated?

A thread👇
October 16, 2025 at 10:40 PM
Reposted by Ricard Alert Zenón
cperez-gonzalez.bsky.social
1/ 🎉Excited to share our new preprint @vignjeviclab.bsky.social @davidbrueckner.bsky.social :

"Self-organization of tumor heterogeneity and plasticity"
biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Tumor heterogeneity and plasticity drive metastasis and relapse. How is tumor patterning coordinated?

A thread👇
October 16, 2025 at 9:55 PM
Reposted by Ricard Alert Zenón
marionamec.bsky.social
🛰️ Sabies que fas servir la teoria de la relativitat cada cop que treus el GPS?

Mira el 4t capítol de La utilitat del coneixement inútil per veure com li peta el cap a la @soctastaolletes.bsky.social 🤯

Amb un ajut @fcri.bsky.social

open.spotify.com/episode/4lza...
Spotify – Web Player
open.spotify.com
October 16, 2025 at 6:08 AM
ricardalert.bsky.social
New job, new preprint! We found that embryo implantation can be understood as active wetting! Embryos from older mothers have trouble implanting because they are too contractile and viscous. Check out the wonderful thread (and movies!) by @katecavanaugh.bsky.social.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
October 2, 2025 at 8:04 AM
ricardalert.bsky.social
Excited to be back in Barcelona @ub.edu to start a new chapter!
October 1, 2025 at 7:11 AM
ricardalert.bsky.social
Warm 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
September 21, 2025 at 1:57 PM
Reposted by Ricard Alert Zenón
mpipks.bsky.social
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
September 19, 2025 at 1:11 PM
ricardalert.bsky.social
Truly happy to see that our Italian colleagues @mpipks.bsky.social won the IgNobel Prize for figuring out that the Cacio e Pepe sauce can easily phase separate and become clumpy! Very well deserved! Congrats to the team! 😀
maxplanck.de Max-Planck-Gesellschaft @maxplanck.de · Sep 19
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.
www.the-scientist.com
September 19, 2025 at 2:42 PM
ricardalert.bsky.social
Check our new preprint on active surface simulations of amoeboid migration! We show how this mode of migration can be mechanically guided by gradients in friction, viscosity, pressure, or confinement, and even by nearby cells. Work led by Hanna Gertack and Sebastian Aland.

arxiv.org/abs/2509.11801
September 19, 2025 at 9:37 AM
Reposted by Ricard Alert Zenón
marionamec.bsky.social
🤔Què tenen en comú l’Ou com balla i un àtom?
🎙️El Lluís Torner, fundador de l’ICFO ens ho explica!
👉 Escolta el 2n capítol de La utilitat del coneixement inútil!

Amb el suport d’un Ajut FCRI 2025 @fcri.bsky.social
@soctastaolletes.bsky.social

youtube.com/shorts/Al5mY...
L'àtom com balla!
YouTube video by La Dimoni de Maxwell
youtube.com
September 18, 2025 at 1:10 PM
ricardalert.bsky.social
Very honored to receive this prize from the Spanish Physical Society! Thanks a lot to all my collaborators, who make this possible!
September 17, 2025 at 4:21 PM
Reposted by Ricard Alert Zenón
mpipks.bsky.social
Bacteria are surrounded by water! New work @natphys.nature.com by @ricardalert.bsky.social @mpipks.bsky.social & collaborators @ Princeton University shows that water capillary forces organise bacterial colonies into gas, nematic streams, and droplet states.

nature.com/articles/s41567-025-02965-y
September 16, 2025 at 6:03 PM
ricardalert.bsky.social
Our paper about active crystals is now out @softmatter.rsc.org! During the revisions, we added a section about triangular lattices, on which the turn-towards or turn-away interactions can be frustrated. Check it out, and see the post below!

pubs.rsc.org/en/content/a...

bsky.app/profile/rica...
August 27, 2025 at 2:36 PM
Reposted by Ricard Alert Zenón
marionamec.bsky.social
Has intentat ma fer un gelat casolà i no ha sortit tan cremós com esperaves? T'han quedat uns cristalls que et trinxen les dents? 🍦☀️
A la @soctastaolletes.bsky.social i a mi ens ha passat, però tenim la solució...
youtube.com/shorts/hAXjP...
Gelat de vidre
YouTube video by La Dimoni de Maxwell
youtube.com
August 24, 2025 at 10:16 AM
ricardalert.bsky.social
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.
www.nature.com
August 2, 2025 at 2:59 PM
ricardalert.bsky.social
New preprint! When forming a crystal, active particles that turn either towards or away from each other end up aligning along directions determined by the crystalline lattice. In these active crystals, orientational and positional order are coupled. Work by Till Welker!

arxiv.org/abs/2506.16501
Lattice-dependent orientational order in active crystals
Via mechanisms not accessible at equilibrium, self-propelled particles can form phases with positional order, such as crystals, and with orientational order, such as polar flocks. However, the interpl...
arxiv.org
June 25, 2025 at 5:11 PM
Reposted by Ricard Alert Zenón
mpipks.bsky.social
🐠🦠Why can’t bacteria swim like fish?
At microscopic scales, physics changes — viscosity rules! Researchers at our institute study how microbes like E. coli overcome this challenge with clever strategies like run-and-tumble.

Watch our new video:

youtu.be/drwCRRD7CGY?...
Tiny swimmers
YouTube video by MPIPKS
youtu.be
June 17, 2025 at 7:45 AM
Reposted by Ricard Alert Zenón
marionamec.bsky.social
😊 I had so much fun making this video for @mpipks.bsky.social!

Loved learning from Christina Kurzthaler how bacteria swim: it’s weird, clever, and totally different from what you'd expect!

✨I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
mpipks.bsky.social Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems @mpipks.bsky.social · Jun 17
🐠🦠Why can’t bacteria swim like fish?
At microscopic scales, physics changes — viscosity rules! Researchers at our institute study how microbes like E. coli overcome this challenge with clever strategies like run-and-tumble.

Watch our new video:

youtu.be/drwCRRD7CGY?...
Tiny swimmers
YouTube video by MPIPKS
youtu.be
June 17, 2025 at 8:26 AM
ricardalert.bsky.social
👉 New paper @physrevlett.bsky.social! Active nematics flow spontaneously, driven by their own constituents, e.g. molecular motors or cells. The transition to spontaneous flows was thought to be always continuous. We now discovered that it can also be discontinuous!

journals.aps.org/prl/abstract...
Nonlinear Spontaneous Flow Instability in Active Nematics
Active nematics exhibit spontaneous flows through a well-known linear instability of the uniformly aligned quiescent state. Here, we show that even a linearly stable uniform state can experience a non...
journals.aps.org
June 10, 2025 at 9:17 AM
Reposted by Ricard Alert Zenón
marionamec.bsky.social
😊 I had the pleasure to turn this exciting @cellpress.bsky.social paper into a video-abstract. Check it out!

youtu.be/0REvwcuOao8

Thanks to the authors for writing the script and to @hymanlab.bsky.social and to @mpi-cbg.de for sharing it!
May 28, 2025 at 7:20 PM
Reposted by Ricard Alert Zenón
marionamec.bsky.social
🎉 SO EXCITED to share this video I made about this super interesting research by @hymanlab.bsky.social at @mpi-cbg.de

🧪 They identified a molecule that can dissolve pathological stress granules associated with diseases like ALS!
May 27, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Reposted by Ricard Alert Zenón
campaslab.bsky.social
We did it! 🎉 🍾🥂

Our Excellence Cluster Physics of Life (PoL) got renewed until 2032! I am so proud of our team and all the great work we did to achieve this.
May 26, 2025 at 11:56 AM