{"id":3719,"date":"2022-03-29T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-29T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpdev.hmc.edu\/physics\/2022\/03\/29\/active-matter-the-cell-from-a-physics-perspective\/"},"modified":"2022-03-29T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2022-03-29T00:00:00","slug":"active-matter-the-cell-from-a-physics-perspective","status":"publish","type":"physics_colloquium","link":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/physics\/research\/colloquium\/active-matter-the-cell-from-a-physics-perspective\/","title":{"rendered":"Active Matter: The Cell From a Physics Perspective"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"page-featured-image\" class=\"wp-block-image is-style-alignleft\" data-pic=\"pic-679.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/physics\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2023\/01\/pic-679.jpg\" alt=\"Promotional image for talk: Elements of a successful scientific talk\" data-pic=\"pic-679.jpg\" \/><\/figure>\n<p><strong>Speaker(s):<\/strong> Janet Y. Sheung<\/p>\n<p>The cells inside our bodies are inherently non-equilibrium materials, able to dynamically change their mechanical properties in response to environmental demands. Scientists have hoped to better understand this kind of active matter for a long time, not simply for the potential advances to medical treatments but also to open the door to the design of futuristic biomimetic materials. In this talk I will describe how my students and I combine purified cell components in the lab to create toy model (very) minimal cells, and how we use a custom microscope equipped with optical tweezers to investigate the real-time restructuring and force response of these materials. Our results show that constant energy consumption allows the cell to switch between solid-like and liquid-like behavior. Lastly, I will share current projects in my lab building on this work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"template":"","class_list":["post-3719","physics_colloquium","type-physics_colloquium","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/physics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/physics_colloquium\/3719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/physics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/physics_colloquium"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/physics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/physics_colloquium"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/physics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/physics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}