Zachary Gao Sun

www.nature.com/articles/s42...

Whole-embryo spatial transcriptomics at subcellular resolution from gastrulation to organogenesis Gene expression patterns underlie development, but their systematic detection in whole embryos has remained elusive. We introduce a whole-embryo imaging platform using multiplexed error-robust fluores...

Very happy to see this out. 👏 @yinanwan.bsky.social
Bogdan Bintu and team.
Whole-embryo spatial transcriptomics at subcellular resolution from gastrulation to organogenesis | free link Science www.science.org/eprint/5MHTM...

Squishy Science Sunday is back at the Global Physics Summit! Join us for hands-on activities about physics, including the physics of slime, sand, and cotton candy! Find us at Denver Museum of Nature and Science. Use code APSSQUISHY26 for a discount on general admission tickets!

First 24 hours of embryonic development in 9 different animal species: (From left to right) Zebrafish, Sea urchin, Black widow spider, Tardigrade, Sea squirt, Comb jelly, Parchment tube worm, Roundworm, Slipper snail. Credit to @tessamontague.bsky.social & Zuzka Vavrušová. #ZebrafishZunday #devbio 🧪

This work uncovers a defect-mediated mechanism for spontaneous failure in active solids and offers topological design principles for controlling targeted damage in soft and living systems across scales.

Topological control of spontaneous failure in active nematic solids - Nature Materials Topological defect quadrupoles orchestrate predictable failure patterns in active nematic solid networks.

So proud of my amazing previous colleague at Yale, Sheng Chen and all the colleagues for this paper on topological control of spontaneous failure in active nematic solids! It's on @natmater.nature.com .
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Thread highlights new work from @nikhil-mishra.bsky.social & @heisenbergcplab.bsky.social 🐟

Link to open-access article: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🔬 New paper in Developmental Biology 🐟
Our researchers have now tested a largely ignored hypothesis—that the geometry of an embryo drives its development. Read more in the 🧵below.

📷 Zebrafish in ISTA’s Aquatic Facility.

This is figure 1, which shows shared acoustic–phonetic processing in STG across native and foreign speech.

The human brain responds to the sounds of both familiar and unfamiliar languages in a similar way, according to research in Nature. The findings might guide future approaches to language learning and rehabilitation. go.nature.com/4ppvsHb #Neuroskyence 🧪

📢 Paper alert 📢

Chirality is known to be important for the movement of microorganisms and active matter. In our new paper out today in @natphys.nature.com, we show that chirality is used by malaria parasites to control their motion patterns:

doi.org/10.1038/s415...

Here comes a 🧵 ... (1/9)

As I spent more and more of my life under the care of doctors, nurses, and researchers striving to improve the lives of others, I watched as Bobby cut nearly a half billion dollars for research into mRNA vaccines, technology that could be used against certain cancers; slashed billions in funding from the National Institutes of Health, the world's largest sponsor of medical research; and threatened to oust the panel of medical experts charged with recommending preventive cancer screenings. Hundreds of N.I.H. grants and clinical trials were cancelled, affecting thousands of patients. I worried about funding for leukemia and bone-marrow research at Memorial Sloan Kettering. I worried about the trials that were my only shot at remission. Early in my illness, when I

Just an absolutely gutting essay by Tatiana Schlossberg, a writer, mother of two young children, and cousin of RFK Jr who is dying of leukemia.

www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...

Excited to share our @sfiscience.bsky.social collab where we uncover universal scaling laws in thermal performance across the tree of life. We found one trait predicts critical temperature limits from viruses to mammals, which is useful to develop rapid forecasting under climate change.🌍📈

U.S. scientists gird for yet another government shutdown Political impasse to hobble research agencies—and perhaps enable layoffs

For the third time in a dozen years, the U.S. scientific community is digging in for a potentially lengthy partial federal government shutdown that promises to disrupt research and funding programs. https://scim.ag/4pQ9y0K

📌 Join us for the next klogW seminar on October 21st at 12PM EST (register below) by Erwin Frey @physicsoflifelmu.bsky.social on "Emergence and Self-organization in Biological Systems".
Registration link:
apsphysics.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

I am hiring 2 PhD students to join my group in at University of Illinois, Chicago, starting Fall 2026.

We will be studying smart materials, from learning active matter to adaptive sociohydrodynamics, using theory and machine learning.

More information found here dsseara.github.io

This is figure 1, which shows description, experimental testing and atmospheric applications of photophoretic levitation mechanisms.

A paper in Nature describes tiny, solar-powered floating devices that could support instruments in the high atmosphere. The devices could be used for climate monitoring and Mars exploration, without the need for conventional fuel to maintain their altitude. go.nature.com/3Jfvl0W 🔭 🧪

My favorite quote of the quote from the summer school, ‘We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. - Oscar Wilde’

The summer school at Santa Fe Institute has truly been transformative in ways I think about complexity sciences. I’m extremely grateful for all the friendships, mentorships, and connections I’ve made along the way. Lots of valuable conversations, lessons, and loads of lifelong memories!

Prof. Bob Austin

Prof. Yuhai Tu.

Prof. Chao Tang for the closing remark

Me giving a talk on Self-Organized Criticality in the Cytoskeleton

More than proud to have learned that this interdisciplinary conference (QBIO2025) has been going on for years and how much Peking University embraces interdisciplinary studies. Honored give a talk about my most recent newborn in research. Complexity Science is a global emergence!

A multicellular star-shaped actin network underpins epithelial organization and connectivity - Nature Communications The combined role of cellular junctions and actomyosin networks in tissues remains unclear. Here, the authors identify a tissue-scale star-shaped network of actomyosin that preserves cell shape, limit...

Ever wished to become an actin star? 😎
Then try getting suspended above a non-adhesive substrate.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Thank you, Alfredo!

Feedback between F-actin organization and active stress governs criticality and energy localization in the cell cytoskeleton - Nature Physics Self-organized criticality can occur in cellular systems, but its origins remain unclear. Now it is shown that cytoskeletal criticality is influenced by the F-actin architecture and myosin active stre...

This piece of work from my PhD is FRESHLY out of the oven in
@natureportfolio.nature.com
Nature Physics! It illustrates how architecture and active stress mutually regulate Criticality and exhibit Anderson Localization-like phenomenon. www.nature.com/articles/s41...