Lectures on Tap-"The Physics of Life: How Living Matter Organizes Itself"

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🧠 Lecture: "The Physics of Life: How Living Matter Organizes Itself"

🎤 Speaker: Dr. Bennett Sessa

How does living matter organize itself? Living cells crawl, reconfigure, and repair themselves through processes powered by chemical energy. Inside them, molecular motors convert that energy into microscopic forces that add up across scales, generating “active stresses” that drive motion and changes in shape.

In this engaging talk, physicist Dr. Bennett Sessa will trace how researchers began uncovering the principles behind these remarkable materials. You’ll explore how collective behavior emerges from simple components, how living systems regulate that behavior, and how recreating lifelike functions in simplified experiments helps us better understand biology.

These insights could guide the design of bioinspired materials that repair themselves or reshape on demand, opening new possibilities for adaptive devices and soft robotics.

Dr. Sessa recently earned his PhD in physics from Brandeis University. His research combines experiments and theory to understand how active materials move and organize themselves. Trained in physics and applied mathematics at the University of Chicago, he is passionate about sharing scientific curiosity with the public.

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