https://phys.org/physics-news/soft-matter en-us The latest news on soft matter, soft condensed matter, liquids, colloids, polymers, foams, gels, granular materials A trio of physicists at Sorbonne Université, in France, has observed a thermoelectric effect between two liquid materials for the first time. In their study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Marlone Vernet, Stephan Fauve and Christophe Gissinger put two types of liquid metals together at room temperature and subjected them to a heat gradient. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-thermoelectric-effect-liquid-materials.html Condensed Matter Soft Matter Tue, 11 Jun 2024 09:05:37 EDT news637315404 In 1883, Osborne Reynolds injected ink into water in a short, clear pipe to observe its movement. His experiments showed that as the input water velocity increased, the flow went from laminar (smooth and predictable) to turbulent (unsteady and unpredictable) through the development of localized patches of turbulence, known today as "puffs." https://phys.org/news/2024-06-unexpected-brewing-coffee-turbulence.html Soft Matter Mon, 03 Jun 2024 11:53:03 EDT news636634381 When plants draw water from their roots to nourish their stems and leaves, they produce an electric potential that could be harnessed as a renewable energy source. However, like all living things, plants are subject to a circadian rhythm—the biological clock that runs through day and night cycles and influences biological processes. In plants, this daily cycle includes capturing light energy for photosynthesis and absorbing water and nutrients from the soil during the day and slowing its growth processes at night. https://phys.org/news/2024-05-hydraulics-streaming-electric-potential-sync.html General Physics Soft Matter Tue, 28 May 2024 11:00:02 EDT news636024491 Blood, lymph fluid and other biological liquids can have surprising and sometimes troubling properties. Many of these biological solutions are non-Newtonian fluids, a type of liquid that is characterized by a non-linear relationship between stress and strain. Consequently, non-Newtonian fluids don't necessarily behave as one would expect from a liquid. For example, some of these peculiar fluids deform when touched lightly but will act almost as a solid when a strong force is applied. https://phys.org/news/2024-05-scientists-reveal-elastic-turbulence-common.html Soft Matter Mon, 27 May 2024 05:10:02 EDT news635757901 Splash a few drops of water on a hot pan and if the pan is hot enough, the water will sizzle and the droplets of water seem to roll and float, hovering above the surface. https://phys.org/news/2024-05-method-aquatic-levitation-temperature-implications.html General Physics Soft Matter Fri, 24 May 2024 05:00:01 EDT news635695621 University of Michigan physicists have devised a way to manipulate active fluids, a type of fluid composed of individual units that can propel themselves independently, by taking advantage of topological defects in the fluids. https://phys.org/news/2024-05-topological-tweezers-fluids.html General Physics Soft Matter Wed, 22 May 2024 12:55:36 EDT news635601332 An international research team including Los Alamos National Laboratory and Tel Aviv University has developed a unique, mechanical metamaterial that, like a computer following instructions, can remember the order of actions performed on it. Named Chaco, after the archaeological site in northern New Mexico, the new metamaterial offers a route to applications in memory storage, robotics, and even mechanical computing. https://phys.org/news/2024-05-artificial-nanomagnets-mechanical-memory-capability.html Condensed Matter Soft Matter Wed, 22 May 2024 12:40:30 EDT news635600426 A study now published in Nature Communications brings remarkable insights into the enigmatic behavior of supercritical fluids, a hybrid state of matter occupying a unique space between liquids and gases, and arising in domains that go from the pharmaceutical industry to planetary science. The obtained results are at the limit of current experimental possibilities and could only be obtained in a high flux neutron source such as the Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL). https://phys.org/news/2024-05-secrets-supercritical-fluids-insights-hybrid.html General Physics Soft Matter Wed, 22 May 2024 12:25:03 EDT news635599501 The Venus flower basket sponge, with its delicate glass-like lattice outer skeleton, has long intrigued researchers seeking to explain how this fragile-seeming creature's body can withstand the harsh conditions of the deep sea where it lives. https://phys.org/news/2024-05-deep-sea-sponge-energy-efficient.html General Physics Soft Matter Fri, 17 May 2024 11:43:03 EDT news635164981 Scientific discovery doesn't always require a high-tech laboratory or a hefty budget. Many people have a first-rate lab right in their own homes—their kitchen. https://phys.org/news/2024-05-raisins-simple-kitchen-reveals-energy.html General Physics Soft Matter Tue, 14 May 2024 11:25:05 EDT news634904702 Glasses and gels are two different types of solid materials that are commonly used in a wide range of settings. Despite their markedly different compositions, these distinct materials share some similar properties, for instance, they exhibit rigidity without a translational order and a slow transformation over time. https://phys.org/news/2024-05-elasticity-glasses-gels.html Condensed Matter Soft Matter Wed, 08 May 2024 10:00:01 EDT news634379669 Microscopic chasms forming a sea of conical jagged peaks stipple the surface of a material called black silicon. While it's commonly found in solar cell tech, black silicon also moonlights as a tool for studying the physics of how water droplets behave. https://phys.org/news/2024-04-physicists-unknown-droplets-superhydrophobic-surfaces.html General Physics Soft Matter Tue, 16 Apr 2024 10:18:57 EDT news632481534 An international research team from Innsbruck and Geneva has, for the first time, probed the dimensional crossover for ultracold quantum matter. In the regime between one and two dimensions, the quantum particles perceive their world as being 1D or 2D depending on the length scale on which they are probed: For short distances, their world is 1D, but it is 2D for long distances. https://phys.org/news/2024-04-physicists-track-dimensionality-affect-properties.html Soft Matter Quantum Physics Wed, 10 Apr 2024 10:59:21 EDT news631965559 A method based on CT (computed tomography)—a type of imaging that is widely used in hospitals—can help improve our understanding of CO2 storage, batteries, and processes in the body such as nutrient uptake. https://phys.org/news/2024-04-method-4d-imaging-fluids-pores.html Soft Matter Tue, 09 Apr 2024 10:01:46 EDT news631875703 The shearing of fluids—meaning the sliding of fluid layers over each other under shear forces—is an important concept in nature and in rheology, the science that studies the flow behavior of matter, including liquids and soft solids. Shear forces are lateral forces applied parallel to a material, inducing deformation or slippage between its layers. https://phys.org/news/2024-04-physics-complex-fluids-polymers-unexpected.html General Physics Soft Matter Thu, 04 Apr 2024 11:28:03 EDT news631448881 Researchers from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have developed a programmable metafluid with tunable springiness, optical properties, viscosity and even the ability to transition between a Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluid. https://phys.org/news/2024-04-intelligent-liquid-metafluid-programmable-response.html Optics & Photonics Soft Matter Wed, 03 Apr 2024 11:00:01 EDT news631352881 Researchers at TU Darmstadt have now presented an approach in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) that can be used to systematically determine efficient search strategies. It could help to intelligently design tasks such as the search for cancer cells or environmental rehabilitations in the future. https://phys.org/news/2024-04-physicists-method-systematically-efficient-strategies.html General Physics Soft Matter Tue, 02 Apr 2024 10:20:03 EDT news631272001 Researchers at TU Darmstadt have now presented an approach in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) that can be used to systematically determine efficient search strategies. It could help to intelligently design tasks such as the search for cancer cells or environmental rehabilitations in the future. https://phys.org/news/2024-04-physicist-method-systematically-efficient-strategies.html General Physics Soft Matter Tue, 02 Apr 2024 10:14:14 EDT news631271651 In a new study, researchers have observed the freezing of saltwater droplets at a molecular level, offering new insights for de-icing and anti-icing technologies. Contrary to conventional wisdom, these droplets don't conform to the typical freezing patterns observed in pure water. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-ice-molecular-insights-saltwater-droplet.html Condensed Matter Soft Matter Mon, 25 Mar 2024 08:30:02 EDT news630331309 The turbulent motion of a tumbling river or the outflow from a jet engine is chaotic: that is, it contains no obvious pattern. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-turbulence-generate-patterns.html General Physics Soft Matter Wed, 20 Mar 2024 16:02:36 EDT news630169353 A longstanding problem in physics has finally been cracked by Professor Kostya Trachenko of Queen Mary University of London's School of Physical and Chemical Sciences. His research, published in Physical Review E, unveils a general theory for predicting melting points, a fundamental property whose understanding has baffled scientists for over a century. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-breakthrough-year-physics-problem.html General Physics Soft Matter Mon, 18 Mar 2024 12:51:07 EDT news629985066 In a study published on January 18, 2024 in the journal Physics of Fluids, researchers from Tohoku University theoretically linked ignition and deflagration in a combustion system, unlocking new configurations for stable, efficient combustion engines due to the possible existence of any number of steady-state solutions. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-theory-linking-ignition-flame-roadmap.html General Physics Soft Matter Thu, 14 Mar 2024 09:25:37 EDT news629627134 We experience turbulence every day: a gust of wind, water gushing down a river, or mid-flight bumps on an airplane. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-didnt-turbulent-minute-triggers.html General Physics Soft Matter Tue, 12 Mar 2024 11:11:03 EDT news629460661 Experiments with liquid metals could not only lead to exciting insights into geophysical and astrophysical flow phenomena, such as atmospheric disturbances at the rim of the sun or the flow in the Earth's outer core, but also foster industrial applications, for example, the casting of liquid steel. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-3d-view-chaos-visualize-temperature.html General Physics Soft Matter Mon, 11 Mar 2024 16:36:32 EDT news629393789 Cicadas are the soundtrack of summer, but their pee is more special than their music. Rather than sprinkling droplets, they emit jets of urine from their small frames. For years, Georgia Tech researchers have wanted to understand the cicada's unique urination. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-cicadas-unique-urination-fluid-dynamics.html Soft Matter Mon, 11 Mar 2024 15:00:01 EDT news629369388 A more efficient way to capture fresh water from the air could be inspired by a phenomenon of motion first glimpsed in bowls of breakfast cereal. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-droplets-harvesting.html General Physics Soft Matter Thu, 07 Mar 2024 10:59:48 EST news629031586 A research team affiliated with UNIST has unveiled for the first time a new principle of motion in the microworld, where objects can move in a directed manner simply by changing their sizes periodically within a substance known as liquid crystal. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-uncover-principle-motion-liquid-crystals.html Soft Matter Wed, 06 Mar 2024 08:52:02 EST news628937521 Robots and cameras of the future could be made of liquid crystals, thanks to a new discovery that significantly expands the potential of the chemicals already common in computer displays and digital watches. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-key-future-robots-liquid-crystals.html Condensed Matter Soft Matter Mon, 04 Mar 2024 11:50:38 EST news628775434 Falling from the tip of a brush suspended in mid-air, an ink droplet touches a painted surface and blossoms into a masterpiece of ever-changing beauty. It weaves a tapestry of intricate, evolving patterns. Some of them resemble branching snowflakes, thunderbolts or neurons, whispering the unique expression of the artist's vision. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-ink-physics.html Soft Matter Mon, 04 Mar 2024 10:15:12 EST news628769708 Topological wave structures are wave patterns that exhibit specific topological properties, or in other words, properties that remain unvaried under smooth deformations of a physical system. These structures, such as vortices and skyrmions, have attracted significant attention within the physics research community. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-theoretical-description-topological.html Soft Matter Quantum Physics Tue, 27 Feb 2024 06:30:01 EST news628164006