PoLS at Georgia Tech

Forget the bellyflop or the cannonball! This is the science-backed way to make the biggest splash in the pool this summer. (Thanks, @BhamlaLab!) b.gatech.edu/4508eAz

Please check out the full preprint on the @arxiv! arxiv.org/abs/2504.14170 A big thanks to authors Akash Vardhan, Ram Avinery, Hosain Bagheri, Velin Kojohourav, Shengkai Li, Hridesh Kedia, Tianyu Wang, Daniel Soto, Kurt Wiesenfeld, and Dan Goldman for their great work!

These principles—emergent behavior arising from actively-driven, deformable objects—are relevant to many living systems. From single-celled organisms to swarms of insects, "smart" behavior can arise from groups of "dumb" individuals, modulated by simple mechanical interactions.

Actively-driven #robots can produce a rich variety of emergent phenomena, including behaviors that appear counterintuitive at first. In a recent preprint from the Goldman Lab at @GeorgiaTech, undulating robots form long-lived pairs mediated solely by repulsive interactions.

Check out these birds, courtesy of Nami Ha! Nami and the @BhamlaLab at Georgia Tech studies the amazing materials that make up living things, including the ultrafast water absorption of sandgrouse feathers.

Today! Come see Chris's talk!

Imaging in C. elegans shows that environmental resistance modulates how neural signals are translated into movement by altering the timing between muscle activation and body bending. Read the paper: go.aps.org/4j1AMxK

Today! Please come see @shucong_li_hhh give an excellent talk!

Please join us this Thursday for the final PoLS Lunch & Learn of the semester! This week's speaker will be Chris Zhang from the Hammer and @wc_ratcliff labs.

The @BhamlaLab is looking to hire a new lab manager! Please see this flyer for details!

Please join us today for another Lunch & Learn seminar! This week's speaker is Maryam Hejri from the Yunker Lab. Lunch will be served at 12:00, with a talk beginning at 12:30!

To learn more, please check out the full paper—now available in @PRX_Life! Congratulations to the authors Chris Pierce, Yang Ding, Lucinda Peng, Xuefei Lu, Baxi Chong, Hang Lu, and Dan Goldman. doi.org/10.1103/PRXLif…

They built a mechanical model showing that phase lags result from a combination of internal elastic torques and external resistive forces. The worm's gait pattern is not purely neural—it's shaped by physics!

Animals at many length scales move through undulation. In a new paper, Chris Pierce and the Goldman Lab use the nematode 🪱 C. elegans to show how interactions with the environment cause undulating body movements to become desynchronized to the phase of muscle contractions.

Today! Come see Ben's talk!