"The Electric Worm Gets the Fly," what a great title! Led by postdoc Ranjiangshang Ran, our lab's latest work was featured in the NYT (gift article):

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/22/s...

All the experiments were done in Victor Ortega-Jimenez's lab at UC Berkeley.

New research demonstrates that static electricity enables the nematode Steinernema carpocapsae to leap and attach to flying insects, significantly increasing its success as a biological pest control agent. doi.org/g96xrn

Amazing talk by @burtonlab.bsky.social! 3D printed acoustic levitators for studying airborne bacteria, and an investigation into the electrostatic attraction that helps parasitic nematodes jump onto their insect hosts. Interdisciplinary science is so cool

www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHvu...

Please join BPPB on Friday May 16 at 11 US Eastern time for an exciting talk by Justin Burton @burtonlab.bsky.social on "Biology in the air: from hitchhiking microbes to jumping nematodes". For more details & to sign up to receive Zoom links for the talks, visit sites.google.com/view/bppb-se....

This paper has taken a long time to see the light, but I'm so happy for Jing (Michelle) Wang, who did all the hard work! In short, when you mechanically shear a stiff hydrogel, they dilate and imbibe fluid in them, like cartilage in your joints.
journals.aps.org/prl/abstract...

Sunday night karaoke dinner with squishy science volunteers from the Burton lab!

Our lab made giant bubbles for squishy science Sunday! It was a beautiful day at the @apsphysics.bsky.social global physics summit.

I created a brief spreadsheet of reductions I've heard of so far. Any additions you know of (especially if you have the links/receipts) would be great: docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

A great article for my climate change class: "...to remove 1 gigaton of carbon dioxide — just 3% of what humans add every year — these systems would need to process the same amount of air that all the air conditioners in the world currently process in one year."

www.aps.org/apsnews/2025...

NSF funding trains graduate students and the next generation of PhDs. This will decimate the scientific workforce. It's not about university research vs. private sector.

‘My boss was crying.’ NSF confronts potentially massive layoffs and budget cuts | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...

⚠️ Effective Monday 2/10/25, NIH indirect rate capped at 15%. Applies to existing & future grants.

—> Deep budget cuts & program closures coming to a university near you.

Is this the break the glass moment for university administrators who have been silent so far about the attack on science?

Our paper is finally out in @naturecomms.bsky.social! Led by Oliva Meng, we show how ice melange thickness can influence iceberg calving through buttressing glacier termini. Simply, the melange thickness is an indicator of the pressure on the glacier front. Check it out!
rdcu.be/d5S52

It was very cool to be part of the ideas festival at Emory Oxford college! The university put together a very nice story, check it out!
news.emory.edu/features/202...

If you are still at the @agu.org meeting, check out our poster on lab crafted glaciers this afternoon!
agu.confex.com/agu/agu24/me...

I just joined bluesky! If you are attending the American Physical Society DFD meeting in Salt Lake City, check out Ranjiangshang Ran's Gallery of Fluid Motion Video! He has a talk on Monday afternoon too.

gfm.aps.org/meetings/dfd...