Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Giovanni Volpe @giovannivolpe.bsky.social · 3d

Light-powered gears: mechanics at the scale of a human hair!

Our latest work recently published in Nature Communications.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Congratulations to Gan Wang and the whole team for this breakthrough!

Microscopic geared metamachines - Nature Communications

Miniaturizing mechanical machines is crucial for advancing nanotechnology. Here, authors present microscopic gear trains and micromachines powered by light-driven metasurfaces, achieving precise sub-micrometer control and sizes down to 10 μm. Their on-chip fabrication enables seamless integration and parallelization, offering new possibilities for micro- and nanoscale systems

www.nature.com

1

Giovanni Volpe @giovannivolpe.bsky.social · Jun 6

Welcome to anything boost the European research and innovation capacity!

BUT the elephant in the room:

Grant success rates need be in the 20-30% to ensure the longterm viability of the EU research ecosystem ensuring all top-notch projects are funded…

This is needed both nationally and EU-wide…

3

Giovanni Volpe @giovannivolpe.bsky.social · May 19

SmartTrap: Automated Precision Experiments with Optical Tweezers

Work by Martin Selin and many others

New article on arXiv arxiv.org/abs/2505.05290

www.linkedin.com/posts/gvolpe...

SmartTrap: Automated Precision Experiments with Optical Tweezers Read the… | Giovanni Volpe

SmartTrap: Automated Precision Experiments with Optical Tweezers Read the preprint here: https://lnkd.in/dExJRb5m SmartTrap is a pioneering optical tweezers system that integrates real-time 3D parti...

www.linkedin.com

1

Giovanni Volpe @giovannivolpe.bsky.social · May 19

I’m no expert on Quincke rollers. The right person to whom to ask would be Denis Bartolo… not on bluesky as far as I know, but maybe an email would do the ttick…

1

Reposted by Giovanni Volpe

SPM4.0 @spm40projecteu.bsky.social · May 9

🌐 Introducing our partner: University of Gothenburg. Their #SoftMatter Lab's focus on active matter and deep learning enhances #SPM40 innovative approach to life sciences. 🤖🔬
#AIinNanotechnology #MSCA #ResearchEU @giovannivolpe.bsky.social

Group photo of around 30 people posed in two rows in front of a blue curtain.

1 2

Reposted by Giovanni Volpe

GREENS | Doctoral Networks - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions @dn-greens.bsky.social · May 4

The PhD position for @unistrathclyde.bsky.social in @dn-greens.bsky.social is open! Supervised by Prof. Simmchen, the candidate will develop novel active matter able to react in complex environments and perform small tasks. 🤖♻️
📢 euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/337887
Deadline: 9th May 2025

1 1

Giovanni Volpe @giovannivolpe.bsky.social · Apr 30

Congratulations! Great software!

Giovanni Volpe @giovannivolpe.bsky.social · Apr 28

Genesis, our modular compiler lets researchers build custom BRAPH 2 distributions fast — supporting Flexibility, Open-source collaboration, Reproducibility, Community innovation, and Ease of use (FORCE).

Tailored, rapid, and reproducible network science — for neuroscience and beyond! 🧠🌐

Giovanni Volpe @giovannivolpe.bsky.social · Apr 28

Network analyses are becoming more complex and large-scale — and flexible, reproducible solutions are crucial.

With BRAPH 2, we introduce a powerful framework that simplifies workflows for multilayer networks, deep learning, and advanced statistics, while fostering community-driven innovation.

1

Giovanni Volpe @giovannivolpe.bsky.social · Apr 28

BRAPH 2: a flexible, open-source, reproducible, community-driven framework for network analyses in neuroscience.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Now BRAPH 2 Genesis permits to quickly build and deploy data analysis pipelines with an emphasis on neurosciences.

1

Reposted by Giovanni Volpe

GREENS | Doctoral Networks - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions @dn-greens.bsky.social · Apr 15

The @physicsgu.bsky.social is a partner in the MSCA @dn-greens.bsky.social! @giovannivolpe.bsky.social will lead the project in developing AI-driven tools and AI-based methodologies for assessing sustainability through LCA in the microrobotics field 🗝️ 🤖 🌿

2 6

Giovanni Volpe @giovannivolpe.bsky.social · Mar 31

🎓 Big congrats to Dr. Laura Natali on successfully defending her PhD thesis:
"Neural Networks for Complex Systems: From Epidemic Modeling to Swarm Robotics" 🦠🤖🦑

hdl.handle.net/2077/84676

AI meets physics & biology in fascinating ways!

#PhDDefense #NeuralNetworks #SwarmRobotics #ComplexSystems

1 5

Giovanni Volpe @giovannivolpe.bsky.social · Mar 26

🎓 Huge congrats to Dr. @harshithb.bsky.social on defending his PhD “Deep Learning Enhanced Optical Methods for Single-Plankton Studies” at @uniofgothenburg! 🤖🔬🦠

AI + microscopy to reveal plankton life in 3D.

Thesis 👉 hdl.handle.net/2077/84857

🥳👏 #PhDDefense #AI #Plankton

1 6

Giovanni Volpe @giovannivolpe.bsky.social · Mar 24

Collaboration with 🌍 @ki.se (@joana-b-pereira.bsky.social), FEMTO-ST (@daniel-brunner.bsky.social) & @physicsgu.bsky.social.

👏 Huge congrats to Mite Mijalkov & Ludvig Storm!

3

Giovanni Volpe @giovannivolpe.bsky.social · Mar 24

💡 Our method applies reservoir computing to brain connectivity data from 700+ people.

📌 Memory capacity correlates with cognitive performance and brain integrity.

🏥 Validated in an independent cohort.

1 1 2

Giovanni Volpe @giovannivolpe.bsky.social · Mar 24

🎉 New publication in Nature Communications!

🧠 We use reservoir computing to measure brain memory capacity — a biomarker for aging & cognition.

🔗 Full paper (open access):
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🧠 Try it yourself with @braph2software.bsky.social :
github.com/braph-softwa...

1 2 6

Reposted by Giovanni Volpe

Joana B Pereira @joana-b-pereira.bsky.social · Mar 24

🧠 I'm excited to share our latest publication in Nature Communications: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
In this study, we explore the computational memory capacity of the brain & how it declines with aging. A big thanks to Mite Mijalkov, all other lab members for their help and amazing collaborators!

Computational memory capacity predicts aging and cognitive decline - Nature Communications

The capacity of brain networks to retain information during aging is crucial but not yet known. This study shows that the brain’s memory capacity, modelled with reservoir computing, offers new insight...

www.nature.com

7 16

Giovanni Volpe @giovannivolpe.bsky.social · Mar 21

Successful Kick Off of the "Deep Dive into AI" Course at Chalmers University of Technology witha 3-day retreat!

www.linkedin.com/posts/gvolpe...

#ai #deeplearning #airesearch #chalmers #machinelearning… | Giovanni Volpe

Successful Kick Off of the "Deep Dive into AI" Course at Chalmers University of Technology witha 3-day retreat! The "Deep Dive into AI" course has officially…

www.linkedin.com

1 3

Giovanni Volpe @giovannivolpe.bsky.social · Mar 14

Interesting…

Altmetric @altmetric.com · Mar 13

Mike spotted this before the rest of us. 🫡

Publications from 2025 are shared more on Bluesky than on X/Twitter.

herrison2000.bsky.social @herrison2000.bsky.social · Mar 13

About to talk to medical affairs colleagues, with the news that Bluesky is carrying more posts about new journal publications than X #bluesky #altmetrics #x #xparrot

2

Reposted by Giovanni Volpe

Maria Leptin @marialep.bsky.social · Mar 12

More good news:
MEP Christian Ehler's ITRE report adopted by the European Parliament: strong support for an expanded and independent ERC.
Happy with the proposal of €220 billion for the EU's next research framework programme! Thank you!
Press briefing
multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/en/webstream...

Press conference by Christian EHLER (EPP, DE) rapporteur, on the implementation of the Horizon Europe programme - Multimedia Centre

The multimedia platform of the European Parliament is the official public available repository of the media production of the Secretariat of the European Parliament, managed by the Directorate-General...

multimedia.europarl.europa.eu

3 27 73

Giovanni Volpe @giovannivolpe.bsky.social · Mar 12

We demonstrate GAUDI’s power by

🌍 Modeling small-world networks

🔬Characterizing protein assemblies from super-resolution microscopy

🐦 Analyzing collective motion in the Vicsek model

🧠 Capturing age-related changes in brain connectivity

2

Giovanni Volpe @giovannivolpe.bsky.social · Mar 12

In our latest preprint, we introduce GAUDI!

GAUDI is an unsupervised geometric deep learning framework for analyzing complex graph-structured data.

Work by Mirja Granfors, Jesús Pineda, @cmanzo.bsky.social @joana-b-pereira.bsky.social Blanca Zufiria Gerbolés

👉 arxiv.org/abs/2503.05560

1 2 8

Reposted by Giovanni Volpe

Laura Alvarez @lauraal.bsky.social · Mar 11

Synetic Cell MC Doctoral Network PhD offer alert!📌 at @kgoepfrich.bsky.social
group in Heidelberg!
If you are interested in RNA origami, synthetic cells, & membranes, contact Kerstin with a CV and a transcript of your records!
More info goepfrichgroup.de
& sigsyncell.crpp.cnrs.fr

6 12

Giovanni Volpe @giovannivolpe.bsky.social · Mar 5

Suggestion welcome before I default on carrier pigeons🕊️ and smoke signals🔥

3/3

2

Giovanni Volpe @giovannivolpe.bsky.social · Mar 5

Requirements:

1. Effortless chatting (both one-on-one and in groups) 🗨️

2. Smooth video calls (whether it's a quick one-on-one or a full group chat) 📹

3. Hassle-free file sharing 📁

4. Lightweight on resources — no battery-draining drama 🔋

2/3

1 2