As part of the BEECOG project, a scientific collaboration involving LIPhy whose aim is to study the role of cognition -and in particular learning- in the collective behavior of bees, Aurore Avarguès-Weber, CNRS research director at the Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition Animale in Toulouse, will give a public lecture at MaCI on Thursday, November 27, 2025, at 7 p.m.

By observing sheared foam under a time-resolved X-ray tomograph, researchers were able to observe how the rearrangements of bubbles in flow cause the overall mechanical response of the entire system.

An international team of researchers from LIPhy (Université Grenoble Alpes / CNRS), the Institut des Molécules et Matériaux du Mans (Le Mans Université / CNRS) and the Technische Universität Darmstadt (Germany) has shown that copper-based nanoparticles (Cu(OH)₂) can degrade bacterial membranes in presence of small amounts of hydrogen peroxide – amounts comparable to those naturally produced by the metabolism of bacterial cells.

A team of researchers from ESPCI Paris (CNRS/PSL/Sorbonne Université) and the Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire de Physique (CNRS/Université Grenoble Alpes) combined high-resolution electrostatic mapping with molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the behavior of these surface-trapped ionic charges. They found that the ionic charges spread across the surface with astonishing mobility. Their two-dimensional diffusion far exceeds that of ions in bulk water, with the limiting factor being the friction between the ionic solvation shell and the solid.

An interdisciplinary team of researchers from Germany and the LIPhy has demonstrated that Tau, a neuronal protein known for stabilizing microtubule tips, plays an active role in modulating microtubule lattice dynamics. The study reveals that Tau significantly accelerates the exchange of tubulin within the microtubule lattice, especially at topological defect sites, despite lacking enzymatic activity. These findings challenge the traditional view of Tau as merely a passive stabilizer, showing instead that it increases lattice anisotropy and, in doing so, actively enhances microtubule lattice dynamics.

LIPhy is taking action to reduce the share of equipment purchases in its CO2 emissions! Over the past year, the laboratory has developed and implemented a new digital tool for sharing equipment: the Matosthèque.

Vivien Lecomte (PSM)

Nicolas Thomas (CARRTEL, Université Savoie Mont Blanc)

Willy Bonneuil (Institut de Physique de Rennes)

Seunghwan Lee (OPTIMA, LIPhy)

Aymeric Allemand (Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium)

Fatima Abbas (OPTIMA, LIPhy)

Nicolas Cuny (Université de Genève, Switzerland)

Lucas Chatelain (OPTIMA, LIPhy)

Arthur Alexandre (EPFL, Switzerland)

Lauren Anderson (OPTIMA, LIPhy)