From m.mrokowska at igf.edu.pl Thu Jul 10 11:39:27 2025 From: m.mrokowska at igf.edu.pl (Magdalena Mrokowska) Date: Thu, 10 Jul 2025 09:39:27 +0000 Subject: [Soft-matter] OSM26 Session PI005: Interactions of microbes with their viscous environment Message-ID: Dear Soft Matter & Complex Systems community, Please consider submitting an abstract to our session titled "Interactions of microbes with their viscous environment" (https://agu.confex.com/agu/osm26/prelim.cgi/Session/257655) at the 2026 Ocean Sciences Meeting in Glasgow. We believe that this topic is rellevant to the Soft Matter & Complex Systems community interests and it may be a great opportunity for many of us to meet in person. Please note that abstracts are due on August 20, 2025. We hope to see you in Glasgow! Bryce, Magdalena, Stuart and ?scar Session: PI005: Interactions of microbes with their viscous environment Topic: Physical-Biological Interactions Abstract: Marine microorganisms live and die in a fluid environment dominated by viscosity, which controls fundamental processes such as molecular diffusion and particle motion. Crucially, marine organisms can engineer their own immediate environment by releasing or degrading viscous organic matter, and in the process influence large-scale ocean food webs and elemental cycling. This session focuses on microbial generation of and response to physical microenvironments that are characterized by viscoelastic exopolymeric substances (EPS), colloids, gels, and aggregates. We welcome in-situ, laboratory, numerical, and theoretical studies that investigate microbial ecology (e.g. chemotaxis, nutrient acquisition, chemical communication, predation, symbioses) from a biophysical perspective (e.g. motility, diffusion, aggregation, fragmentation, sedimentation, rheology, fluid mechanics). Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, physical interactions of microorganisms with marine snow, biofilms, phycospheres, sea surface microlayers, slimes, gelatinous zooplankton, kelp, coral, fish mucus membranes, and environmental contaminants such as oil and nano- and microplastics. Chairs: Bryce Inman (University of Lincoln UK), Magdalena Mrokowska, (Institute of Geophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland), Stuart Humphries (University of Lincoln, UK), ?scar Guadayol (IMEDEA. UIB-CSIC, Spain). Magdalena Mrokowska -- Magdalena Mrokowska, Associate Professor Institute of Geophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences Hydrology and Hydrodynamics Department Ks. Janusza 64, 01-452 Warsaw, Poland -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From Maciej.Lisicki at fuw.edu.pl Tue Jul 22 22:31:04 2025 From: Maciej.Lisicki at fuw.edu.pl (Maciej Lisicki) Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2025 22:31:04 +0200 Subject: [Soft-matter] Special seminar on 28 July 2025 Message-ID: Dear Soft Matter & Complex Systems Colleagues and Friends, On Monday 28 July 2025 at 14:00 at the UW Faculty of Physics (Pasteura 5, Warsaw; room 1.40) we are hosting a special seminar during which Andrzej Herczy?ski (Boston College, USA) will give a talk Fractal Contours: Order, Chaos & Art Abstract Over the recent decades, a variety of indexes, such as the fractal dimension, Hurst exponent, or the Betti numbers, have been used to characterize structural or topological properties of art via discrete parameters. A single fractal dimension, in particular, has been commonly interpreted as characteristic of the entire artwork, whether binary, gray-scale, or in color, and whether self-similar or not. There is now ample evidence, however, that such exponents are strongly dependent on the details of the procedure used. Here we propose a more discriminating scaling analysis of images with the aim of obtaining robust scaling plots and avoiding any fitting routines. To this goal, we carefully average over all possible grid locations at each scale, rendering scaling functions independent of grid position and image orientation. And instead of fitting these plots with straight lines, we calculate their derivatives ? continuous fractal contours. We test this approach on synthetic examples, ordered and random, on images of algorithmically defined fractals, and then examine selected abstract works by acknowledged masters of modern art. Possible applications extend to physics, classification of medical scans, and art historical studies. We warmly welcome everyone to attend the talk and the Soft Matter Coffee Break after the seminar, held in room 2.63 (2nd floor). All best wishes, Maciej -- Dr hab. Maciej Lisicki, prof. UW Institute of Theoretical Physics | Faculty of Physics University of Warsaw softmatter.fuw.edu.pl -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: