Marco De Corato

📌 Takeaway:
The inverse Magnus effect is a microstructural phenomenon driven by polymer transport, not classical viscoelasticity.
This mechanism will matter for microrheology, active colloids, and micro‑robotics.
Paper: Colloidal Magnus effect in polymer solutions www.cell.com/newton/fullt...

We derived a simple analytical expression for the migration velocity and — without any fitting parameter — it matches experiments beautifully.

Now add rotation.
The particle spins inside this asymmetric viscosity field, producing a fore–aft stress imbalance leading to a net force. Since the particle is force-free, it needs to migrate laterally to balance this force.
No inertia. No normal stresses.
Just microstructure + viscosity gradients.

The missing ingredient?
👉 Stress‑gradient‑induced polymer migration.
At micron scales, polymers move in response to stress gradients.
A translating colloid creates a fore–aft stress imbalance → polymers accumulate in front and deplete behind → a viscosity dipole forms.

We used theory and simulations but soon found out that classical viscoelasticity wasn’t enough.
We tested Oldroyd‑B, Giesekus, normal‑stress differences, shear‑thinning…
All of them predicted zero lateral migration.
So the usual viscoelastic mechanisms simply don’t generate the effect.

Memory-induced Magnus effect - Nature Physics The Magnus effect refers to rotating objects developing a lift force when travelling through a fluid. It normally vanishes at microscopic length scales but now a very large Magnus effect is demonstrat...

🚀 New paper out in Newton!
Experiments by Xin Cao and coworkers (doi.org/10.1038/s415...) recently showed something surprising: a micron‑scale particle spinning in a polymer/micellar solution drifts sideways — an inverse Magnus effect — even though inertia is negligible.
We set out to explain why.

Sharing a PhD advert on a very cool project on cells interacting with bacteria, which is offered by a colleague from our institute!

Well-defined wavelength in the clouds between Gothenburg and Frankfurt.

This is a two-year postdoctoral fellowship.
Candidates are eligible if they have received their phd degree less than 2 years ago (phd defense date later than the 10th of december 2023 and before the 10th of december 2025).

The call for the prestigious Juan de la Cierva fellowship has been published today. The deadline for applying is the 10th of December. Contact me as soon as possible if you are interested. We will run a selection and only support one candidate.

Super proud of being part of such a fantastic network!

We’re excited to introduce the new website for the GREENS Doctoral Network!

You'll find general information on the GREENS DN, the team and the latest news.
#UniBarcelona #uniba #UAB #ethz #myethzurich #uniheidelberg #Unizar #medunigraz

🔗 www.greens-msca.eu

I had a blast visiting the Charles Coulomb soft matter labs in Montpellier earlier today! Super nice people and very cool experiments.
Now heading to Leuven for the @cellmech2025.bsky.social

Being passionate about soft matter means getting excited when you find a license plate with the Boltzmann constant multiplying the absolute temperature

The prestigious Marie-Curie Postdoctoral call open recently! Reach out to me via DM or email if you are interested in a fellowship in our lab. We have several exciting projects going on.

Instead, an approach based on the Poisson-Nernst-Planck equations captures the experimental trend almost quantitatively. Something to keep in mind when modelling active particles that release or consume ionic species

Ionic Diffusiophoresis of Active Colloids via Galvanic Exchange Reactions In order to move toward realistic applications by extending active matter propulsion reactions beyond the classical catalytic hydrogen peroxide decomposition, we investigate the self-propulsion mechanism of Janus particles. To address the influences of ionic species, we investigate Janus particles driven by a galvanic exchange reaction that consumes and produces ions on one hemisphere. Our galvanophoretic experiments in the regime of thin Debye layers confirm that even the simplest models in active matter are still full of important surprises. We find a logarithmic speed dependence on the fuel concentration, which cannot be explained using the classic ionic self-diffusiophoretic framework. Instead, an approach based on the Poisson–Nernst–Planck equations yields a better agreement with the experiments. We attribute the discrepancy between the two models to the breakdown of two key hypotheses of the ionic self-diffusiophoretic approach.

Check out our new paper on the ionic diffusiophoresis of active particles! A very nice scientific journey with the group of Juliane Simmchen. We find out that a slip velocity approach based on seld-phoresis cannot capture the experiments.

pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Very happy to be at the Annual European Rheology Conference with my group. If you are around check out our talks!

One week left to apply for this super cool project within the great MSCA project GREENS

Two weeks left to apply to this exciting PhD project

Phd opening in our lab!
We are looking for a PhD student to work on simulation of active micr/nano robots. Dradline for apllication 4th of april. This is a fully funded three-years position and it is part of the MSCA Doctoral Network @dn-greens.bsky.social

The Universidad de Zaragoza @www.unizar.es is a partner in the MSCA DN GREENS @dn-greens.bsky.social! Dr. Marco De Corato @madecorato.bsky.social, Prof. Salvador Izquierdo and Prof. Norberto Fueyo will lead the project...
💡PhD open positions EURAXESS lnkd.in/dYcP2Dta

Phd opening in our lab!
We are looking for a PhD student to work on simulation of active micr/nano robots. Dradline for apllication 4th of april. This is a fully funded three-years position and it is part of the MSCA Doctoral Network @dn-greens.bsky.social

Thrilled to be part of the fantastic @itngreens.bsky.social MSCA doctoral network and to work on micro/nano robots. Stay tuned for PhD openings in our lab!

@educaciongob.bsky.social
me parece vergonzoso que a un estudiante de ingeniería biomedica le asignes en el área Salud para solicitar una beca FPU. Ingeniería biomédica es una ingeniería (cálculo, álgebra, medios continuos, fluidos, tecnología electrónica...)

Elon Musk takes aim at Wikipedia The billionaire has become one of the most prominent supporters of President-elect Donald Trump.

If you've never donated to Wikipedia, now's the time. Elon Musk is attacking it because it's one of the only sources of honest, curated information that he can't control.
www.newsweek.com/elon-musk-ta...

The call for the Juan de la Cierva fellowship has been published today. The deadline for applying is the 17th of January 2025. Contact me as soon as possible if you are interested.

www.aei.gob.es/en/announcem...

This is how I found our table this morning. Anybody knows if this is really a log(x) behavior, and, if yes, why?

You are right! I thought it was like a dedicated group for soft matter and fluid mech 😅