Over the past 4 years I've accumulated >10TB of videos while observing the dynamics of dissolving oil droplets. As my work has taken on new directions rather than just stashing the files in storage, I'd like to share some of my fav moments at the microscope for others to enjoy:
Emergence
2x mag, 25x speed
Spinners
6x mag, 10x speed
Searching
6x mag, 5x speed
Assembly
10x mag, 5x speed
Expansion
6x mag, 5x speed
Waves
15x mag, 10x speed
Wow, thanks everyone for watching! Truly did not expect this kind of response...
Hidden worlds surround us everyday waiting in plain sight. Often all we have to do is stop and take a closer look!
For anyone interested, @TeamFoldscope has developed a very inexpensive paper microscope accessible to anyone in the world to satisfy curiosity and serve as low-cost medical diagnostic tools.
Super excited to share my first co-authored paper just out in @NatureChemistry!
We showed how chemical signaling between dissolving oil droplets can lead to non-reciprocal interactions resembling the chasing behavior between predator and prey: nature.com/articles/s4155…
This famous footage captured by Rogers in the 1950's shows the epic chase of a neutrophil hunting down a bacteria. No brains here, the behavior is mediated entirely by chemicals shared between the two.
But can we design synthetic systems and materials that can do the same?
Chasing requires the interaction between things be nonreciprocal (A attracted to B, B repelled by A).
However most physical interactions are reciprocal (things either attract or repel). Nature's trick is to operate outside equilibrium where such reciprocity is not guaranteed.