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matildabackholm.bsky.social
Assistant Professor in Soft Matter Physics at Aalto University, Finland | Forces and flow in mesoscale living, fluid, & soft matter | ERC StG laureate & Research Council of Finland Fellow | EPL co-editor aalto.fi/living-matter
48 posts 1,290 followers 713 following
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This is such a cool new paper from the @bhamlalab.bsky.social with a fun discovery of kink instabilities in jumping nematodes. I was also happy to see that my old PhD data on C. Elegans bending stiffness was useful.

submitted 33 days ago • 1 comment

"Taken together, we can conclude that women — already dramatically underrepresented at the highest levels of physics — are further underrepresented in last authorship in prestigious journals." Excellent effort by Prof. Alannah Hallas.

submitted 44 days ago • 0 comments

I really needed this. I will print this, have it on my desk, and re-read it a few times a year.

submitted 169 days ago • 0 comments

Okay, here comes a newish PI question... We're soon submitting the first paper from my group (🥳). Should we upload it on arXiv? Any reasons not to? Something to be careful about? I've been really old-fashioned with this, but with the growing peer-review times, it might be time for change.

submitted 186 days ago • 7 comments

To introduce myself to this new community, I will share some of my previous research projects. In my postdoc with @robinras.bsky.social, I developed the micropipette force sensor to measure the tiny friction of water droplets moving on extremely slippery superhydrophobic surfaces. Details below.

submitted 190 days ago • 1 comment

I'm reading the wonderful book Beautiful Experiments by @philipcball.bsky.social: "Experiments are at the core of science. It is typically by experimentation that scientific discoveries are made." I couldn't agree more. Long live curiosity-driven experimentation with counterintuitive discoveries.

submitted 191 days ago • 0 comments

My Department of Applied Physics at Aalto University has opened two new Tenure Track positions in the field of Computational Physics, one of which is for the key area in soft materials: www.aalto.fi/en/open-posi...

submitted 197 days ago • 0 comments

My current research keywords: soft matter physics, biomechanics, micro/meso-swimming, plant physics, capillary phenomena, force sensing, fluid dynamics, experimental physics

submitted 197 days ago • 1 comment

Help! What should I read next? Nothing too heavy, scary, or sad (life has given enough of that). What book blew you away or caught your full attention?

submitted 504 days ago • 4 comments