https://www.emmetfrancis.com/blog daily 0.75 2025-02-22 https://www.emmetfrancis.com/blog/similarities-between-simulating-a-single-cell-and-entire-universe monthly 0.5 2024-12-09 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fee2cb066132f51ded62f89/d0e6fcb9-c132-461e-9077-40083a23abb9/connections+in+cerebellum+vs+cosmic+web.jpg Blog - Similarities between simulating a single cell and the entire universe - Make it stand out Figure 3 from Vazza and Feletti 2020, showing quantitative similarities between the cosmic web and neuronal networks. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fee2cb066132f51ded62f89/70792cb8-af83-4003-ae8b-28066d24a086/hodgkin_huxley.png Blog - Similarities between simulating a single cell and the entire universe - Make it stand out The astounding agreement between simulations (left) and experiments (right) from Figure 11 in Hodgkin and Huxley’s seminal paper from 1952. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fee2cb066132f51ded62f89/4db6f980-05c5-41c4-b35f-d66333de0ae1/universe+in+a+box.jpg Blog - Similarities between simulating a single cell and the entire universe - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fee2cb066132f51ded62f89/26bdc9be-2cac-4151-a591-ca37e3081233/JOSS_Fig1.png Blog - Similarities between simulating a single cell and the entire universe - Make it stand out An example of a relatively simple model (A) simulated in a quite complex geometry (B-D) representing a small section of a neuron known as a dendritic spine. Figure 1 from Laughlin et al 2023. https://www.emmetfrancis.com/blog/consider-a-spherical-cow monthly 0.5 2023-01-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fee2cb066132f51ded62f89/d241b270-e80e-4868-916a-cce58e0d5e0f/the+biggest+ideas.jpg Blog - Consider a spherical cow… - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fee2cb066132f51ded62f89/1cb5cdc7-72de-485a-bc05-be7b55100e75/image_50408961.jpg Blog - Consider a spherical cow… - Make it stand out An inspirational spherical cow in my office. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fee2cb066132f51ded62f89/514a0174-a0e1-45b8-ada6-4d7158dcf299/journal.pcbi.1009937.g001+%281%29.jpg Blog - Consider a spherical cow… - Make it stand out Consider an axially symmetric cell… [2] https://www.emmetfrancis.com/blog/how-do-immune-cells-spread monthly 0.5 2022-10-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fee2cb066132f51ded62f89/77ee6c66-96d2-4fa5-ba69-0ef6bdeaa1b0/zipper.jpg Blog - How do immune cells spread? - Make it stand out Figure 1: Phagocytosis as a “zippering” process. The front of the cell (white body) forms attachments to the pathogen (gray body) as it spreads. Figure from Swanson and Hoppe, 2004, Journal of Leukocyte Biology https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fee2cb066132f51ded62f89/5f38541b-79f7-4059-ae98-6ca5b627583e/altered+figs+3.png Blog - How do immune cells spread? - Make it stand out Figure 4: We model the spreading neutrophil as a body of highly viscous fluid with different stresses acting at the cell boundary. The diagram on the top right is essentially a free-body diagram, like you may have encountered when solving force balance problems in basic physics. In this case, the system is quite complicated overall, so we need to use a computer to compute a numerical solution, which gives us the fluid velocity and pressure, as plotted on the bottom right. Figure is modified from Francis and Heinrich 2022. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fee2cb066132f51ded62f89/36ac4133-9bf5-46d0-a56c-83b458a93314/altered+figs+4.png Blog - How do immune cells spread? - Make it stand out Figure 5: A zoomed-in depiction of a neutrophil spreading over discrete binding sites. The cell can spread further on a surface coated with higher densities of IgG, just as you would likely be able to climb higher on a rock wall with plenty of hand and foot holds available. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fee2cb066132f51ded62f89/9a1088ba-8917-4da9-b153-d75a1e73db08/altered+figs+2.png Blog - How do immune cells spread? - Make it stand out Figure 3: Measurements of spreading speeds and maximum contact areas during frustrated phagocytosis experiments. The spreading speed doesn’t change on higher IgG densities, and the maximum contact area only increases a small amount. Figure modified from Francis and Heinrich 2022. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fee2cb066132f51ded62f89/ac08340c-a509-4ef5-8b6b-775eeb060839/altered+figs+1.png Blog - How do immune cells spread? - Make it stand out Figure 2: Diagram of the frustrated phagocytosis experimental setup, modified from our experimental preprint (Francis et al 2022). The microscope setup is described in full in the paper; this setup allows for “reflection interference contrast microscopy”, which allows us to collect the high-contrast images of the cell “footprint” during spreading, as shown on the right hand side. https://www.emmetfrancis.com/blog/why-do-i-like-carly-rae-jepson monthly 0.5 2021-12-27 https://www.emmetfrancis.com/blog/reflections-on-the-mysteries-of-quantum-physics monthly 0.5 2021-09-14 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fee2cb066132f51ded62f89/1631481018250-4URTEDW7FKO5X11FWOCD/what-is-a-particle-WAVE.gif Blog - Reflections on the mysteries of quantum physics - Make it stand out In general, until observed, the wave function will be spread out over a range of possibilities. After measurement, it looks like it collapses… Source: Quanta Magazine quantamagazine.org/what-is-a-particle-20201112/ https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fee2cb066132f51ded62f89/1631483828369-URVK8S84HPP0GEFPBPPE/IMG_5709.jpeg Blog - Reflections on the mysteries of quantum physics - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.emmetfrancis.com/blog/whats-your-favorite-subject-in-school-and-why-is-it-math monthly 0.5 2021-07-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fee2cb066132f51ded62f89/1626065549456-O92OH7D80V5AZ7VB3GCB/Sin+with+taylor+series.png Blog - What’s your favorite subject in school and why is it math? - Make it stand out The function sin(x) can be approximated by polynomials - higher order polynomials get closer and closer to the function itself. https://www.emmetfrancis.com/blog/explaining-my-research-the-video-version monthly 0.5 2021-03-30 https://www.emmetfrancis.com/blog/explaining-my-research-part-2 monthly 0.5 2021-01-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fee2cb066132f51ded62f89/1611513274983-FTKR1SNV2GOUSOP20QT0/calcium-in-cell.png Blog - Explaining my research, part 2: The importance of calcium in the diet of a neutrophil A cartoon depiction of different calcium concentrations inside and outside the cell. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fee2cb066132f51ded62f89/1611513307316-GAJRLRGQFIEAK2QOBDKD/simple-hypothesis.png Blog - Explaining my research, part 2: The importance of calcium in the diet of a neutrophil A simplified graphical version of my hypothesis. https://www.emmetfrancis.com/blog/explaining-my-research-part-1 monthly 0.5 2021-01-19 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fee2cb066132f51ded62f89/1610847355770-JBM0GJ6B1B79986OQI56/blackBox.png Blog - Explaining my research, part 1: Neutrophils, the devoted foot soldiers of your immune system https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fee2cb066132f51ded62f89/1610917309016-PPPUZTCPYXCXDWQ0NF0P/myeloidFamily.png Blog - Explaining my research, part 1: Neutrophils, the devoted foot soldiers of your immune system Neutrophils and macrophages are both myeloid cells. This cell lineage here can be roughly understood as a family tree, although in this case, the parent actually becomes one of the children, e.g. a granulocyte/macrophage progenitor can become any of the 5 different cells below it. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fee2cb066132f51ded62f89/1610846597746-1PHCCKJRVL5S3I9OOX0W/recruitmentCascade.png Blog - Explaining my research, part 1: Neutrophils, the devoted foot soldiers of your immune system https://www.emmetfrancis.com/blog/the-importance-of-explaining-science monthly 0.5 2021-01-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fee2cb066132f51ded62f89/1610487512594-ZK6ZEC60JHYOI7P2NB45/briangreene.jpg Blog - My 2 cents on the importance of science communication Briane Greene on his TV series, The Fabric of the Cosmos [3] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fee2cb066132f51ded62f89/1610480905005-UBEIQX60ROMHC8HLDLJH/waronsci.jpg Blog - My 2 cents on the importance of science communication https://www.emmetfrancis.com/blog/post-3-2xe38 monthly 0.5 2021-01-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fee2cb066132f51ded62f89/1609748246502-BPAU5QVQWSNI3KITJ6RG/IMG-4455.JPG Blog - A few thoughts on prioritization in career choice The cover to Royal Blood, mounted honorably in my childhood bedroom. 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