Scientists have built an information engine that converts molecular energy into motion using a laser to trap a bead in water🔬 The innovation, reported on in Advances in Physics: X⬇️ unlocks new insights into molecular processes and even our own biology🧬 tandfonline.com/doi/metrics/10…

Congrats Matt, on a magisterial defence and a thesis that will be a resource to the community for years to come! It’s been an honour.

This work was done by Matthew Leighton (Matt Leighton), Jannik Ehrich, and David Sivak (David Sivak) at SFU Physics Simon Fraser University.

I have openings for graduate students in SFU Physics, SFU Chemistry, or SFU Molecular Biology and Biochemistry. Check out davidsivak.com for our research interests!

Check out the The Graduate Center/CPBF symposium tomorrow on Information and Irreversibility itsatcuny.org/calendar/2025/… featuring Nikta Fakhri, my colleague John Bechhoefer, and yours truly!

Kudos to Matt for his complete leadership from start to finish on this review, which was invited as a result of his compelling, cohesive, and ground-breaking graduate research!

Postdoc opportunity! Join us in heavenly Vancouver (Canada) to develop fundamental nonequilibrium stat mech, thermo, and info theory applied to biomolecular machines and in close collaboration with experiment. Details: sfu.ca/physics/sivakg…

Congratulations to Matt on his Convocation Medal!

Fun new paper by Callum SFU Physics, on energetically efficient multi-parameter driving of our favorite molecular motor (shout out F1!). doi.org/10.1103/bm3d-c… Supported by NSERC / CRSNG TIPS_SPIIE

New preprint out today: “Information Thermodynamics of Cellular Ion Pumps”. Led by talented undergraduate student Julián Jiménez-Paz, and working with David Sivak, we explore the thermodynamics of cellular ion pumps like the sodium-potassium pump.

Still accepting postdoc applications!