Jared Popowski
@jaredpopo.bsky.social
Getting my PhD in intelligent active glasses/plant biophysics from UvA! 🧫🌱
Physics MSc from UBC, 2023
Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=D18a24AAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao
https://jaredpopowski.com/
Physics MSc from UBC, 2023
Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=D18a24AAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao
https://jaredpopowski.com/
Pinned
Jared Popowski
@jaredpopo.bsky.social
· Dec 1
Glandular trichome rupture in tomato plants is an ultra-fast and sensitive defense mechanism against insects
Glandular trichomes function as ultra-fast biomechanical defense triggers in tomatoes, rupturing upon contact with insects and exposing them to sticky and
academic.oup.com
The JXB Tomato special edition is out, featuring the first publication of my PhD! We found that glandular trichome head rupture in tomato is an ultra-sensitive defense against insect predation. 🧵on plant biomechanics, fluid dynamics, and plant-insect interactions! 🧪
academic.oup.com/jxb/article/...
academic.oup.com/jxb/article/...
Reposted by Jared Popowski
The Garden of Earthly Delights (detail), by Hieronymus Bosch, 1480-1505
August 29, 2026 at 5:39 PM
The Garden of Earthly Delights (detail), by Hieronymus Bosch, 1480-1505
I'm the guy to call during a summer heatwave
July 21, 2026 at 6:54 PM
I'm the guy to call during a summer heatwave
Reposted by Jared Popowski
Our work on chloroplast packing was featured by @quantamagazine.bsky.social in @maxlevy.bsky.social's article.
It was a fun colab with @mazi1.bsky.social and Eric Weeks during my PhD that led to this work.
Article: www.quantamagazine.org/the-hidden-m...
Paper in @pnas.org: doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
It was a fun colab with @mazi1.bsky.social and Eric Weeks during my PhD that led to this work.
Article: www.quantamagazine.org/the-hidden-m...
Paper in @pnas.org: doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
The Hidden Mathematical Dance Inside Plant Cells | Quanta Magazine
The sunlight-collecting organelles known as chloroplasts solve a packing problem: how to optimize photosynthesis without sustaining damage from dangerously intense rays.
share.google
May 5, 2026 at 10:17 AM
Our work on chloroplast packing was featured by @quantamagazine.bsky.social in @maxlevy.bsky.social's article.
It was a fun colab with @mazi1.bsky.social and Eric Weeks during my PhD that led to this work.
Article: www.quantamagazine.org/the-hidden-m...
Paper in @pnas.org: doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
It was a fun colab with @mazi1.bsky.social and Eric Weeks during my PhD that led to this work.
Article: www.quantamagazine.org/the-hidden-m...
Paper in @pnas.org: doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
Reposted by Jared Popowski
These highly sentient creatures have weak protections for their well-being. That must change.
go.nature.com/48vuHGw
go.nature.com/48vuHGw
Cephalopods deserve higher welfare standards in research
These highly sentient creatures have weak protections for their well-being. That must change.
go.nature.com
April 29, 2026 at 1:34 PM
These highly sentient creatures have weak protections for their well-being. That must change.
go.nature.com/48vuHGw
go.nature.com/48vuHGw
Reposted by Jared Popowski
Researchers have designed an electrode that allows for a month-long, noninvasive method of studying physiology and health in a diverse array of plants.
Learn more in this week’s issue of #ScienceAdvances: https://scim.ag/4aay3yP
Learn more in this week’s issue of #ScienceAdvances: https://scim.ag/4aay3yP
January 23, 2026 at 10:53 PM
Researchers have designed an electrode that allows for a month-long, noninvasive method of studying physiology and health in a diverse array of plants.
Learn more in this week’s issue of #ScienceAdvances: https://scim.ag/4aay3yP
Learn more in this week’s issue of #ScienceAdvances: https://scim.ag/4aay3yP
Reposted by Jared Popowski
The newspaper headlines. It's insane that he got away with this unpunished.
January 6, 2026 at 2:30 PM
The newspaper headlines. It's insane that he got away with this unpunished.
Project 2025 drives policy decisions in the US government, and I expect that to continue over the next year. I (unaffiliated) found this site that tracks their progress: www.project2025.observer/en
Already 50% of Project 2025's policy proposals have been implemented in Trump's first year.
Already 50% of Project 2025's policy proposals have been implemented in Trump's first year.
Project 2025 Tracker
A comprehensive, community-driven initiative to track the implementation of Project 2025's policy proposals
www.project2025.observer
January 4, 2026 at 5:22 PM
Project 2025 drives policy decisions in the US government, and I expect that to continue over the next year. I (unaffiliated) found this site that tracks their progress: www.project2025.observer/en
Already 50% of Project 2025's policy proposals have been implemented in Trump's first year.
Already 50% of Project 2025's policy proposals have been implemented in Trump's first year.
Reposted by Jared Popowski
🔬🪲 SPECIAL ISSUE RESEARCH 🔬🪲
Glandular trichomes function as ultra-fast biomechanical defense triggers in tomatoes, rupturing upon contact with insects and exposing them to sticky and toxic secretions - Popowski et al.
🔗 doi.org/10.1093/jxb/...
#PlantScience 🧪 @jaredpopo.bsky.social
Glandular trichomes function as ultra-fast biomechanical defense triggers in tomatoes, rupturing upon contact with insects and exposing them to sticky and toxic secretions - Popowski et al.
🔗 doi.org/10.1093/jxb/...
#PlantScience 🧪 @jaredpopo.bsky.social
December 5, 2025 at 8:00 AM
🔬🪲 SPECIAL ISSUE RESEARCH 🔬🪲
Glandular trichomes function as ultra-fast biomechanical defense triggers in tomatoes, rupturing upon contact with insects and exposing them to sticky and toxic secretions - Popowski et al.
🔗 doi.org/10.1093/jxb/...
#PlantScience 🧪 @jaredpopo.bsky.social
Glandular trichomes function as ultra-fast biomechanical defense triggers in tomatoes, rupturing upon contact with insects and exposing them to sticky and toxic secretions - Popowski et al.
🔗 doi.org/10.1093/jxb/...
#PlantScience 🧪 @jaredpopo.bsky.social
Reposted by Jared Popowski
📣 Check out the Journal of Experimental Botany's newest special issue 📣
🍅 Tomato - Issue 21 of 2025 🍅
📘 Guest edited by Yves Gibon, Diane Beckles, Sonia Osorio & Hiroshi Ezura
🔗 academic.oup.com/jxb...
#JXBspecialissues #PlantScience 🧪 @sebiology.bsky.social @dianemariabeckles.bsky.social
🍅 Tomato - Issue 21 of 2025 🍅
📘 Guest edited by Yves Gibon, Diane Beckles, Sonia Osorio & Hiroshi Ezura
🔗 academic.oup.com/jxb...
#JXBspecialissues #PlantScience 🧪 @sebiology.bsky.social @dianemariabeckles.bsky.social
December 1, 2025 at 10:14 AM
📣 Check out the Journal of Experimental Botany's newest special issue 📣
🍅 Tomato - Issue 21 of 2025 🍅
📘 Guest edited by Yves Gibon, Diane Beckles, Sonia Osorio & Hiroshi Ezura
🔗 academic.oup.com/jxb...
#JXBspecialissues #PlantScience 🧪 @sebiology.bsky.social @dianemariabeckles.bsky.social
🍅 Tomato - Issue 21 of 2025 🍅
📘 Guest edited by Yves Gibon, Diane Beckles, Sonia Osorio & Hiroshi Ezura
🔗 academic.oup.com/jxb...
#JXBspecialissues #PlantScience 🧪 @sebiology.bsky.social @dianemariabeckles.bsky.social
The JXB Tomato special edition is out, featuring the first publication of my PhD! We found that glandular trichome head rupture in tomato is an ultra-sensitive defense against insect predation. 🧵on plant biomechanics, fluid dynamics, and plant-insect interactions! 🧪
academic.oup.com/jxb/article/...
academic.oup.com/jxb/article/...
Glandular trichome rupture in tomato plants is an ultra-fast and sensitive defense mechanism against insects
Glandular trichomes function as ultra-fast biomechanical defense triggers in tomatoes, rupturing upon contact with insects and exposing them to sticky and
academic.oup.com
December 1, 2025 at 7:50 PM
The JXB Tomato special edition is out, featuring the first publication of my PhD! We found that glandular trichome head rupture in tomato is an ultra-sensitive defense against insect predation. 🧵on plant biomechanics, fluid dynamics, and plant-insect interactions! 🧪
academic.oup.com/jxb/article/...
academic.oup.com/jxb/article/...
Reposted by Jared Popowski
Roses don’t just defend themselves. Their prickles are geometrically ideal for gripping surfaces, supporting vertical growth, and, when needed, creating lacerations that deter herbivores. Students - join us to investigate how biological form and physical law work together!
November 25, 2025 at 5:31 PM
Roses don’t just defend themselves. Their prickles are geometrically ideal for gripping surfaces, supporting vertical growth, and, when needed, creating lacerations that deter herbivores. Students - join us to investigate how biological form and physical law work together!
I've never heard more business bullshitting than while listening to the CEO of Roblox, Dave Baszucki, trying to startup-speak his way around the problem of child predators on his platform during a planned interview on the subject
November 24, 2025 at 5:41 PM
I've never heard more business bullshitting than while listening to the CEO of Roblox, Dave Baszucki, trying to startup-speak his way around the problem of child predators on his platform during a planned interview on the subject
Reposted by Jared Popowski
Ozempic, MRI machines and flat screen televisions all emerged out of fundamental research decades earlier — the very types of study being slashed by the US government
go.nature.com/47hn0n5
go.nature.com/47hn0n5
7 basic science discoveries that changed the world
Ozempic, MRI machines and flat screen televisions all emerged out of fundamental research decades earlier — the very types of study being slashed by the US government.
go.nature.com
November 1, 2025 at 5:39 PM
Ozempic, MRI machines and flat screen televisions all emerged out of fundamental research decades earlier — the very types of study being slashed by the US government
go.nature.com/47hn0n5
go.nature.com/47hn0n5
Reposted by Jared Popowski
Success rates for Europe’s leading research grants are declining as a surge in applications far outweighs the funds available
go.nature.com/479Sni6
go.nature.com/479Sni6
Is academic research becoming too competitive? Nature examines the data
Applications for European research grants increased in 2025. Scientists say they’re feeling the competition.
go.nature.com
October 17, 2025 at 10:12 AM
Success rates for Europe’s leading research grants are declining as a surge in applications far outweighs the funds available
go.nature.com/479Sni6
go.nature.com/479Sni6
How about we don't tie fundamental research funding up with defense in the EU? The push for defense applications could take away spending in other critical areas like medicine or environmental science
It is time to sound the alarm as the EU’s research priorities face an unprecedented degree of political interference
go.nature.com/46UR4DH
go.nature.com/46UR4DH
The EU’s Horizon research fund needs to stay a defence-free zone
It is time to sound the alarm as the EU’s research priorities face an unprecedented degree of political interference.
go.nature.com
October 7, 2025 at 4:47 PM
How about we don't tie fundamental research funding up with defense in the EU? The push for defense applications could take away spending in other critical areas like medicine or environmental science
Reposted by Jared Popowski
Happy to share that our work on active phase separation by photophobic microalgae is now published in PRL!
journals.aps.org/prl/abstract...
When surrounded by multiple light sources, cells hide behind each other, leading to the quick formation of a macroscopic branching pattern.
journals.aps.org/prl/abstract...
When surrounded by multiple light sources, cells hide behind each other, leading to the quick formation of a macroscopic branching pattern.
October 5, 2025 at 8:54 PM
Happy to share that our work on active phase separation by photophobic microalgae is now published in PRL!
journals.aps.org/prl/abstract...
When surrounded by multiple light sources, cells hide behind each other, leading to the quick formation of a macroscopic branching pattern.
journals.aps.org/prl/abstract...
When surrounded by multiple light sources, cells hide behind each other, leading to the quick formation of a macroscopic branching pattern.
Cool animal that I didn't know existed: this is a crab spider that I saw on a hike in Brittany, strategically positioned amidst the densest group of butterflies that I had seen on the trail
August 16, 2025 at 11:48 AM
Cool animal that I didn't know existed: this is a crab spider that I saw on a hike in Brittany, strategically positioned amidst the densest group of butterflies that I had seen on the trail
Reposted by Jared Popowski
In the last couple of months I helped biodesigner Chris Bellamy in a collaboration with fashion designer Iris van Herpen to make a bioluminescent dress for Paris Haute Couture week.
And the outcome was absolutely stunning!!!!
www.uva.nl/en/shared-co...
And the outcome was absolutely stunning!!!!
www.uva.nl/en/shared-co...
Physics meets fashion: a bioluminescent dress
A very special look was presented earlier this week by fashion designer Iris van Herpen at the Paris Haute Couture Week. The garment: a bioluminescent dress, created from 125 million living algae. Bio...
www.uva.nl
July 13, 2025 at 9:16 PM
In the last couple of months I helped biodesigner Chris Bellamy in a collaboration with fashion designer Iris van Herpen to make a bioluminescent dress for Paris Haute Couture week.
And the outcome was absolutely stunning!!!!
www.uva.nl/en/shared-co...
And the outcome was absolutely stunning!!!!
www.uva.nl/en/shared-co...
This is the future I want for all active fault zones! Let's get cheap sensors everywhere+statistical modeling to alert us to incoming earthquakes/volcanic eruptions
A freshly installed network of sensors has pinpointed its first hydrothermal explosion at Yellowstone
https://go.nature.com/4jUnxhL
https://go.nature.com/4jUnxhL
Sensors pinpoint the exact time of a Yellowstone explosion
Data could help to reveal the warning signs of potentially dangerous eruptions caused by liquid groundwater abruptly turning into gas.
go.nature.com
June 20, 2025 at 2:13 PM
This is the future I want for all active fault zones! Let's get cheap sensors everywhere+statistical modeling to alert us to incoming earthquakes/volcanic eruptions
Reposted by Jared Popowski
Join us in Amsterdam to explore the inner lives of mycorrhizal fungi using robotics, fluorescence microscopy & machine learning.
Work at AMOLF w/ @thomasshimizu.bsky.social + more
📅 Application Deadline: 15 May, 2025
Advert here: amolf.nl/wp-content/u...
Photo (!) @vkokkoris.bsky.social
Work at AMOLF w/ @thomasshimizu.bsky.social + more
📅 Application Deadline: 15 May, 2025
Advert here: amolf.nl/wp-content/u...
Photo (!) @vkokkoris.bsky.social
April 24, 2025 at 10:07 AM
Join us in Amsterdam to explore the inner lives of mycorrhizal fungi using robotics, fluorescence microscopy & machine learning.
Work at AMOLF w/ @thomasshimizu.bsky.social + more
📅 Application Deadline: 15 May, 2025
Advert here: amolf.nl/wp-content/u...
Photo (!) @vkokkoris.bsky.social
Work at AMOLF w/ @thomasshimizu.bsky.social + more
📅 Application Deadline: 15 May, 2025
Advert here: amolf.nl/wp-content/u...
Photo (!) @vkokkoris.bsky.social
Reposted by Jared Popowski
BREAKING from @science.org: The Trump admin is seeking to kill nearly all climate research at NOAA, its climate science agency.
Its near-final budget proposal would end all NOAA research labs, academic institutes, and regional climate centers. And it wants to fully end the NOAA Research division.
Its near-final budget proposal would end all NOAA research labs, academic institutes, and regional climate centers. And it wants to fully end the NOAA Research division.
Trump seeks to end climate research at premier U.S. climate agency
White House aims to end NOAA’s research office; NASA also targeted
www.science.org
April 11, 2025 at 3:20 PM
BREAKING from @science.org: The Trump admin is seeking to kill nearly all climate research at NOAA, its climate science agency.
Its near-final budget proposal would end all NOAA research labs, academic institutes, and regional climate centers. And it wants to fully end the NOAA Research division.
Its near-final budget proposal would end all NOAA research labs, academic institutes, and regional climate centers. And it wants to fully end the NOAA Research division.
Reposted by Jared Popowski
🧵 Watch closely the waves on the surface as a bird moves through the water! This is one of my favorite videos that I've seen recently - dense collections of fish using collective escape waves that confuse birds 🌊
Great new paper by David Bierbach et al. : royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10....
Great new paper by David Bierbach et al. : royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10....
March 22, 2025 at 3:26 PM
🧵 Watch closely the waves on the surface as a bird moves through the water! This is one of my favorite videos that I've seen recently - dense collections of fish using collective escape waves that confuse birds 🌊
Great new paper by David Bierbach et al. : royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10....
Great new paper by David Bierbach et al. : royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10....
Reposted by Jared Popowski
Are you at the #APSGlobalSummit2025?
I'm extremely honored to be finalist for the @apsdsoft.bsky.social Emerging Soft Matter Excellence Award!
Curious? Come by on Tuesday 8-11am at the Session MAR-F65 (my talk: 10:24am) 😊
Also just message me if you wanna have a chat :)
@apsphysics.bsky.social
I'm extremely honored to be finalist for the @apsdsoft.bsky.social Emerging Soft Matter Excellence Award!
Curious? Come by on Tuesday 8-11am at the Session MAR-F65 (my talk: 10:24am) 😊
Also just message me if you wanna have a chat :)
@apsphysics.bsky.social
March 16, 2025 at 3:03 PM
Are you at the #APSGlobalSummit2025?
I'm extremely honored to be finalist for the @apsdsoft.bsky.social Emerging Soft Matter Excellence Award!
Curious? Come by on Tuesday 8-11am at the Session MAR-F65 (my talk: 10:24am) 😊
Also just message me if you wanna have a chat :)
@apsphysics.bsky.social
I'm extremely honored to be finalist for the @apsdsoft.bsky.social Emerging Soft Matter Excellence Award!
Curious? Come by on Tuesday 8-11am at the Session MAR-F65 (my talk: 10:24am) 😊
Also just message me if you wanna have a chat :)
@apsphysics.bsky.social