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Giacomo Bartolucci (he)

@gbart.bsky.social

610 followers 1.1K following 48 posts

https://giacobarto.github.io/ I love biophysics, jazz, poetry, and activism, especially when mixed together! Into phase separation, and active nematics. JdC postdoc at University of Barcelona, previously at MPI PKS Dresden and Uni Augsburg

giacobarto.github.io

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Giacomo Bartolucci (he) @gbart.bsky.social · 19d

Still can't believe this: WE WON THE IG NOBEL PHYSICS PRIZE www.washingtonpost.com/science/2025...

With painted cows and a perfect pasta sauce, ‘Ig Nobel’ winners claim glory

Some of the world’s most imaginative scientific minds have been celebrated at the Ig Nobel awards, which recognize discoveries that make people “laugh, then think.”

www.washingtonpost.com

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Giacomo Bartolucci (he) @gbart.bsky.social · 5d

Good news in rough times:
Our work on generalising Lifshitz-Slyosov-Wagner (LSW) theory to active systems, led by the all-mighty Jonathan Bauermann, is out on PRL!! Special thanks to Christoph Weber @m-pol.bsky.social and Frank Jülicher.

doi-org.sire.ub.edu/10.1103/f5x9...

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Reposted by Giacomo Bartolucci (he)

epithelial mechanics fan club @epimechfc.bsky.social · 17d

Ever wondered how to control stretch/compression in your epithelial system? Do you know why it’s important, which mechanotransduction mechanisms could be involved? I am @valeriaventurini.bsky.social and today I will guide you through this journey.

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Reposted by Giacomo Bartolucci (he)

Mesoscopic Physics of Life (MPoL) @m-pol.bsky.social · 16d

Great to see the role of phase separation in the culinary world being recognised. 🧀🍝 A huge congratulations to @gbart.bsky.social and collaborators!

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Giacomo Bartolucci (he) @gbart.bsky.social · 16d

Thanks a lot Chris and all the Augsburg crew 🥹🥹

Giacomo Bartolucci (he) @gbart.bsky.social · 17d

Can't wait to see you at UB!

Ricard Alert Zenón @ricardalert.bsky.social · 17d

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

Reposted by Giacomo Bartolucci (he)

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft @maxplanck.de · 19d

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

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Giacomo Bartolucci (he) @gbart.bsky.social · 19d

Still can't believe this: WE WON THE IG NOBEL PHYSICS PRIZE www.washingtonpost.com/science/2025...

With painted cows and a perfect pasta sauce, ‘Ig Nobel’ winners claim glory

Some of the world’s most imaginative scientific minds have been celebrated at the Ig Nobel awards, which recognize discoveries that make people “laugh, then think.”

www.washingtonpost.com

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Reposted by Giacomo Bartolucci (he)

Lars Hubatsch @larshubatsch.bsky.social · 19d

Amazing!!! 🧪 The 2025 Ig Nobel prize goes to scientists from the @mpipks.bsky.social for discovering a bullet proof version to make the classic pasta alla cacio e pepe! Including a deep understanding of the pasta sauce in terms of phase separation physics 😃
Congrats @gbart.bsky.social et al!
Links👇

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Reposted by Giacomo Bartolucci (he)

Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems @mpipks.bsky.social · 19d

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

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Reposted by Giacomo Bartolucci (he)

Ricard Alert Zenón @ricardalert.bsky.social · Aug 2

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

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Giacomo Bartolucci (he) @gbart.bsky.social · Aug 1

Finally, we move to the opposite limit: fast reactions!
We observe spirals of droplets, but, perhaps surprisingly, phase equilibrium still holds on the mesoscale. Indeed, local averages show that the concentrations in and outside of drops still lie on the binodal manifold!

Giacomo Bartolucci (he) @gbart.bsky.social · Aug 1

This framework even allows for a new kind of stability analysis of an inhomogeneous state 🥹

Giacomo Bartolucci (he) @gbart.bsky.social · Aug 1

By imposing timescale separation between slow reactions and fast diffusion, we define a dynamics at phase equilibrium.
 We exploit it to study the effects of localisation of B and C in the A-rich and A-poor phases, showing dampening and amplification of the oscillations.

Giacomo Bartolucci (he) @gbart.bsky.social · Aug 1

As expected, we see a periodic emergence of droplets:

Giacomo Bartolucci (he) @gbart.bsky.social · Aug 1

The model:
Cahn–Hilliard dynamics for three solutes and a solvent, where the three solutes (ABC) convert into each other according to the Rock-Paper-Scissors (RPS) reaction network.

We break the symmetry and let A drive phase separation while B, C can localize in the A-rich or A-poor phase.

Giacomo Bartolucci (he) @gbart.bsky.social · Aug 1

Proud of this preprint with my friends Jonathan Bauermann and @artemyte.bsky.social, about chemical oscillators & phase separation! Main findings:
1. Phase separation controls frequency and amplitude of oscillations
2. If reactions are fast, spirals of droplets emerge!

arxiv.org/abs/2507.16030

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Giacomo Bartolucci (he) @gbart.bsky.social · May 7

"Phase behaviour of Cacio e Pepe sauce" got published in Physics of Fluids as part of the "kitchen flows" series!

An important addition to the preprint is the analysis of trisodium citrate preventing clumps

What a crazy journey, thanks everyone for the support!!

pubs.aip.org/aip/pof/arti...

Phase behavior of Cacio e Pepe sauce

“Pasta alla Cacio e pepe” is a traditional Italian dish made with pasta, pecorino cheese, and pepper. Despite its simple ingredient list, achieving the perfect

pubs.aip.org

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Reposted by Giacomo Bartolucci (he)

Physics of Life Dresden @poldresden.bsky.social · Apr 9

🎉Visit our COSMO event this Friday 🎉

Calling all music and science lovers! @jesseveenvliet.bsky.social from @mpi-cbg.de will give a fascinating talk on how new stem cell models shed light on the fundamentals of life, followed by a musical journey from the 80s to now. Learn more: tud.link/fktb9k

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Reposted by Giacomo Bartolucci (he)

Elisa Nerli @nerlielisa.bsky.social · Apr 9

How can organs regenerate fast? Bioelectricity helps -- by coupling sub-second electrical injury signals to regenerative proliferation.

First preprint from my potsdoc :D with @liujinghui.bsky.social @ritamateus.bsky.social @mpi-cbg.de and collaborators @mpipks.bsky.social @csbdresden.bsky.social

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Reposted by Giacomo Bartolucci (he)

Özge Özgüç @oozguc.bsky.social · Mar 27

Whaaat?! Cell-estial Bloom took 1st place in the Node–FocalPlane image competition! 🤯🤯🤯

the Node @the-node.bsky.social · Mar 27

🎉Congratulations to the Top 3 images from the Node–FocalPlane image competition!

1️⃣"Cell-estial bloom" by @oozguc.bsky.social
2️⃣"Dancing actinotroch" by @allancarbal.bsky.social
3️⃣"Who’s active?" by @jupeloggia.bsky.social

thenode.biologists.com/results-from...

@focalplane.bsky.social #biologists100

"Cell-estial bloom" Image from Özge Özgüç:
A ‘Cell-estial bloom’ of human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) flourishes on a micropatterned island. This image presents a colony of live hiPSCs, with fluorescently labelled Lamin B delineating the nuclear lamina within each cell. Acquired with a Zeiss LSM 880 Airyscan microscope, this maximum intensity projection is enhanced with depth-coded coloring to reveal the captivating three-dimensional landscape.

"Dancing actinotroch" by Allan Carrillo-Baltodano:
Actinotroch larva of a phoronid worm with phalloidin shown in yellow and acetylated tubulin in magenta. Imaged with a Zeiss LSM 800 at 10 x magnification.

"Who’s active?" by Julia Peloggia de Castro:
The image depicts a zebrafish embryo at 9 hours post-fertilisation on a lateral view. Cells are stained with MitoTracker, which labels active mitochondria, and cell membranes are labelled in cyan with a EGFP transgenic membrane tag. Image was taken using a 20x objective on a spinning disk confocal microscope.

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Giacomo Bartolucci (he) @gbart.bsky.social · Feb 12

Bravissima!!

Reposted by Giacomo Bartolucci (he)

Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems @mpipks.bsky.social · Jan 29

"Cacio e pepe" physics: In arxiv.org/abs/2501.00536v1, eight Italian scientists from the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems explain the physics behind a perfect dish of "cacio e pepe" and how to eschew the dreaded "mozzarella phase" - work featured @nytimes.com.

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Giacomo Bartolucci (he) @gbart.bsky.social · Jan 28

It takes a lot of cheese to become a Ragazzone ;)

Giacomo Bartolucci (he) @gbart.bsky.social · Jan 27

But, most importantly, we became a meme! Thanks a lot to "La scienza coatta" <3
www.instagram.com/p/DEXJ-iKNiq...

Welcome back to Instagram. Sign in to check out what your friends, family & interests have been capturing & sharing around the world.

www.instagram.com

Giacomo Bartolucci (he) @gbart.bsky.social · Jan 27

Also La repubblica and Il corriere www.repubblica.it/il-gusto/202...

www.corriere.it/cook/news/25...

Cacio e pepe, la ricetta perfetta esiste: i segreti svelati da un team di ricercatori

Un gruppo di studiosi ha portato avanti un’analisi scientifica su uno dei piatti italiani più amati. La scoperta: cruciale il rapporto fra amido e formaggio. E…