Is ranch dressing a liquid or a solid? our @ScienceDesk asked, via @TheConversationUS's Curious Kids series (also good for curious adults). Turns out it’s something called soft matter, like cookie dough, toothpaste, and snot.
https://theconversation.com/is-ranch-dressing-a-liquid-or-a-solid-a-physicist-explains-249435
#Science #Physics #SoftMatter #FoodScience #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday
Ultra-Soft Solids Flow By Turning Inside Out
Can a solid flow? What would that even look like? Researchers explored these questions with an ultra-soft gel (think 100,000 times softer than a gummy bear) pumped through a ring-shaped annular pipe. Despite its elasticity — that tendency to return to an original shape that distinguishes solids from fluids — the gel does flow. But after a short distance, furrows form and grow along the gel’s leading edge.
Front view of an ultra-soft solid flowing through an annular pipe. The furrows forming along the face of the gel are places where the gel is essentially turning itself inside out.Since the gel alongside the pipe’s walls can’t slide due to friction, the gel flows by essentially turning itself inside out. Inner portions of the gel flow forward and then split off toward one of the walls as they reach the leading edge. This eversion builds up lots of internal stress in the gel, and furrowing — much like crumpling a sheet of paper — relieves that stress. (Image and research credit: J. Hwang et al.; via APS News)
#flowVisualization #fluidDynamics #instability #physics #pipeFlow #science #softMatter #solidMechanics #stress
#GutenbergResearchAward 2025 for materials scientist Anna Balazs from the University of Pittsburgh / World-renowned pioneer in materials theory and soft matter science is honored with #MainzUniversity's most prestigious research award for her exceptional research contributions to the field of so-called smart materials 👉 https://press.uni-mainz.de/anna-balazs-wins-the-2025-gutenberg-research-award/ @dfg_public
#GutenbergResearchAward 2025 für Materialwissenschaftlerin Anna Balazs / Weltweit renommierte Wegbereiterin in der Materialtheorie und der Wissenschaft der weichen Materie erhält bedeutendsten Forschungspreis der #UniMainz in Anerkennung ihrer herausragenden Beiträge zum Forschungsfeld der sogenannten intelligenten Materialien 👉 https://presse.uni-mainz.de/anna-balazs-erhaelt-gutenberg-research-award-2025/ @dfg_public
#Materialwissenschaften #WeicheMaterie #SoftMatter #IntelligenteMaterialien #Materialwissenschaft #CoM2Life
Cooking Perfect Cacio e Pepe
In cooking, sometimes the simplest recipes are the toughest to master. Cacio e pepe — a classic three-ingredient Italian pasta — is an excellent example. Made properly, the sauce of cheese and black pepper combines with starchy water to coat the pasta in a uniform, cheesy sauce. Or, if you’re me, you wind up with a pasta sauce flecked with stringy clumps of melted cheese. Fortunately for those of us who have yet to master this one, a new research paper has us covered with tips to make the perfect cacio e pepe.
The key to that elusive silky sauce, they found, is the starch – water – cheese combination. Your water needs just the right amount of starch — they found that between 1 – 4% starch by (cheese) mass worked. If the starch concentration is too low (which can easily happen in pasta water), you’ll get the clumpy cheese mess that so frequently happens in my kitchen. Temperature is also critical; if the water is too hot when it’s added, then it can destabilize the sauce. Check out the pre-print’s Section V for the scientific, supposedly foolproof, recipe. I know I’ll be trying it! (Image credit: O. Kadaksoo; research credit: G. Bartolucci et al. pre-print; via APS News)
#cooking #emulsion #fluidDynamics #phaseSeparation #physics #rheology #science #softMatter
ILL #SoftMatter Summer School, 1–3 July 2025 at the Institut Laue-Langevin, #Grenoble
The aim of the school is to provide an overview of the forces governing the behavior of soft matter systems and introduce the most relevant techniques to probe such interactions.
Confirmed speakers include Benoit Coasne, Milena Corredig, Wiebke Drenckhan, Samantha Micciulla, Julian Oberdisse, Sylvain Prevost, Emanuel Schneck, and Alicia Vallet.
2nd funding period for #ResearchTrainingGroup 2516 "Control of structure formation in #SoftMatter at and through interfaces" of @uni_mainz_eng, @mpi_polymer, @TUDarmstadt & @Uni_Stuttgart / @dfg_public provides funding of € 5.2 mio. / #physics #chemistry
https://nachrichten.idw-online.de/2024/11/21/second-funding-period-for-research-training-group-2516-on-structure-formation-in-soft-matter
Our #preprint where we derive an #activeGel #model with entropic elasticity of the #microstructure from the thermodynamic constraints on the dynamics of #myosin molecular motors is now updated!
Hopefully more readable, and with the example of a #cyst like contractile sphere.
#cytoskeleton #rheology #activeMatter #softMatter #actomyosin
The expansion of turbid drops in water: Researchers at @uni_mainz_eng and @HHU_de managed to look inside cloudy liquids for the first time // #physics #SoftMatter @RoySocChem
https://nachrichten.idw-online.de/2024/10/17/the-expansion-of-turbid-drops-in-water
You know you're a #SoftMatter #physicist when you can name 5 different types of viscosity...
But not remember which is which.
A friend posted this on Facebook and I am BY A MIGHTY EFFORT OF WILL not pitching in to tell everyone who's so sure they can cite the 'science' definition of 'liquid' that it's actually a bit more complicated than that.
#softMatter #physics #tryingNotToBeADick
A new #preprint where we derive an #activeGel #model with entropic elasticity of the #microstructure and give interpretations of the thermodynamic constraints on the dynamics of #myosin molecular motors.
This planet-like balloon started out as two elastomer sheets, heat-sealed together into a spiraling tube. As the balloon was inflated, it changed from flat to a saddle-like shape. With more air, the pressure inside increased, triggering an instability that caused the middle of the balloon to bulge. As inflation continued, the central bulge expanded, unbonding layer after layer of the seal. Even late in inflation, the balloon maintains hints of its original shape in the form of a ring around the Jovian bulge in the middle. (Image credit: N. Vani et al.)
https://fyfluiddynamics.com/2024/05/bulging-balloons/
#2024gosmp #balloons #elasticity #fluidDynamics #instability #physics #science #softMatter
Nice view from the Forum building in #Groningen during the #softmatter symposium. Weather cleared up fortunately. ⛅️
Shared with me by a polymer chemistry colleague at Berkeley. Published, appropriately, in the journal Soft Matter
https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2017/sm/c6sm02795d
#chemistry #chemiverse #softmatter #CiteThatShit
We got finally published our article on granular cubic particles. Thanks to our collaborators in BUAP, Puebla and Universidad Autónoma de Hidalgo.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S037843712300866X
#GranularMatter #Physics #StatisticalPhysics #SoftMatter
The annual workshop of the GDR "Interfacial #SoftMatter" will take place
in #Rennes next week
#CNRS
detailed program here:
https://ism2023.sciencesconf.org/program/details
For those not registered to attend the #workshop physically, they will also broadcast the event online if you wish to attend remotely.
Feel free to join us and connect to the following #BigBlueButton link in
your favourite web browser:
Je vais tenter de me présenter à nouveau ici parce que contrairement à l’autre réseau j’ai quasiment personne qui me lit (ça fait bizarre). Je suis physicien, spécialiste des problèmes de matière molle, expérimentateur. Je suis intéressé par la médiation scientifique et les questions liées a l’éducation. Je parle aussi cuisine, et de ma famille un peu. #physique #SoftMatter #vulgarisation #esr #bouffe Je ne comprends rien aux instances… et autres.
Watch the lectures of Sara Bonella, Ignacio Pagonabarraga and Georg Kaser now, if you missed them 👀
https://youtube.com/@ESIVienna/videos
#GlobalWarming #GlacierMelt #GreenhouseGas #GasEmissions #ClimateChange
#StatMech #statisticalmechanics #SoftMatter #softmatterphysics
@univienna @uniinnsbruck
Today, Sara Bonella's and Ignacio Pagonabarraga's lectures will take place at @ESIVienna. 🧐
We hope you're coming in person, but if you're unable to attend, you can catch up on our Youtube Channel ⏯️ https://youtube.com/@ESIVienna/playlists
#StatMech #statisticalmechanics #SoftMatter #softmatterphysics
@univienna
