Some people look at worms and see fish bait. Sohum Kapadia sees the future. 🪱

Working in the laboratory of Physics Professor Arshad Kudrolli, the Ph.D. student conducts experiments detailing how California blackworms move through water-filled spaces of various shapes and strictures.

Funded by a $330,000 @nsfgov grant, the research is expected to one day inform the development of “soft robots” that could revolutionize the way we diagnose illness, deliver medicines and other treatments, and create more efficient surgical techniques.

🔗 See link in bio to read more.
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📸 Photo 1: Simon Bissitt ’26 and Ph.D. candidate Sohum Kapadia conduct experiments in Professor Arshad Kudrolli’s physics lab.
📸 Photos 2 & 4: Worms move through a water droplet.
📸 Photo 3: Lily Carey ’25 and Balaram Desai ’24 work with the Hemholtz coil, used for experiments with magneto-elastic worms.