When a liquid is heated beyond its boiling point, vapour bubbles nucleate and grow through a process that spans vastly different length scales — from molecular fluctuations to macroscopic dynamics. Using large-scale fluctuating hydrodynamics simulations combined with rare-event techniques, we follow the liquid-to-vapour transition from the earliest nucleation events through bubble growth, quantifying the role of surface wettability and recovering both atomistic and experimental observations within a single framework. These results establish a quantitative bridge between fluctuation-driven nucleation and emergent boiling dynamics across scales. Check it out here.

Cracks can destroy structures. Contacts drive countless industrial processes. Though these seem very different, the underlying mechanics are surprisingly similar: stress builds up and diverges at a single moving point the tip of a crack or the edge of a forming contact - driven by external forces. These regions are notoriously hard to study because they're obscured within the surrounding material. Using high-speed 3D imaging, we capture these dynamics in real time. Our work reveals that tiny defects and random noise strongly influence both crack growth and contact formation. Two case studies highlight this: how geometry affects toughness in brittle hydrogels, and how defects shape the formation of contacts. Despite their differences, both systems show universal behaviors that emerge from these local, nonlinear dynamics. We'll conclude with a demonstration of how these insights can be applied - from boosting material toughness to precisely manipulating liquid droplets.

Interfaces are decisive control points in sustainable energy systems, often limiting performance and durability through complex physicochemical interactions. In this talk, I will highlight how interfacial engineering can unlock new capabilities in three application areas. First, I will discuss strategies for soot removal in biomass combustion, where microtextured surfaces fabricated via laser ablation and sandblasting can promote self-cleaning and reduce fouling. Second, I will present our recent work on carbon capture and conversion, showing how bubble-harnessing aerophilic surfaces enhance CO2 dissolution and mass transfer for more efficient capture processes. Third, I will describe our efforts to mitigate hydrogen embrittlement in pipeline steels using ultra-thin, self-healing liquid-like coatings that slow hydrogen ingress and provide superior long term protection. I will conclude by outlining a broader vision for how interfacial science and interfacial engineering can accelerate the transition to low-carbon energy systems and improve the longevity of clean energy technologies in the face of climate change.

In modern science, the frontier between pure discovery and technology is a blurred, fertile ground where pure curiosity meets applications. E-Nucl resides in this liminal space, where insights from fundamental physics can reshape the design rules of next-generation microtechnologies. The purpose of E-Nucl is to bridge the gap between atomistic and continuum mechanics to address the multiscale nature of the nucleation phenomenon. We employ fluctuating hydrodynamics, coupled with diffuse-interface thermodynamics and rare-event techniques from large deviation theory, to fully resolve the phase transition process. Our aim is to obtain a time-resolved and multiscale picture of nucleation in fluids through the use of a high performance computing (HPC) infrastructure to conduct in-silico trials that inform the design of novel microtechnologies. Check out the dissemination article over here.

Within the E-Nucl project, we discovered complex transition pathways for vapor bubble nucleation in metastable liquids, under both homogeneous and heterogeneous conditions. Published in the Journal of Fluid Mechanics (Gallo et al., 2025), the study combines Navier–Stokes–Korteweg dynamics with rare-event techniques, showing that nucleation deviates from classical theory and is driven by long-wavelength fluctuations. A new hydrodynamics-based strategy to infer nucleation times was validated, also revealing unexpected effects of surface wettability. The approach is general and extendable to real fluids and complex geometries. Check it out here.