http://phys.org/physics-news/soft-matter/ en-us Phys.Org provides the latest news on soft matter, soft condensed matter, liquids, colloids, polymers, foams, gels, granular materials Researchers at the University of Twente's MESA+ research institute have given the first demonstration of how the drag exerted on liquids flowing through tiny "fluidic chips" is affected by the introduction of diminutive gas bubbles. Armed with this knowledge, scientists can directly manipulate flow resistance in a variety of applications involving combinations of liquids and gas bubbles. This could be useful in areas ranging from the manufacture of fizzy drinks to the development of artificial lungs. http://phys.org/news287741273.html Physics - Soft Matter Tue, 14 May 2013 09:08:26 EST news287741273 (Phys.org) —A combined team of researchers from the Technical University of Braunschweig in Germany and Kobe University in Japan has determined that the Brazil nut effect is less pronounced as gravity is reduced. The team describes tests they undertook both in the lab and as part of a simulated reduced gravity environment aboard an airplane in their paper they've uploaded to the preprint server arXiv, and the results they found after analyzing their observations. http://phys.org/news284720534.html Physics - Soft Matter Tue, 09 Apr 2013 10:02:43 EST news284720534 Sunghwan Jung is a fan of the 19th Century born John William Strutt, 3rd, also known as Lord Baron Rayleigh. An English physicist, Rayleigh, along with William Ramsay, discovered the gas argon, an achievement for which he earned the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1904. http://phys.org/news283175262.html Physics - Soft Matter Fri, 22 Mar 2013 12:48:34 EST news283175262 Ethanol, a component of biofuel made from plants such as corn, is blended with gas in many parts of the country, but has significantly different fluid properties than pure gasoline. A group of researchers from the University of Michigan wondered how ethanol-based fuels would spread in the event of a large aquatic spill. They found that ethanol-based liquids mix actively with water, very different from how pure gasoline interacts with water and potentially more dangerous to aquatic life. http://phys.org/news272293486.html Physics - Soft Matter Fri, 16 Nov 2012 13:04:55 EST news272293486 (Phys.org)—A way of printing lasers using everyday inkjet technology has been created by scientists. The development has a wide range of possible applications, ranging from biomedical testing to laser arrays for displays. http://phys.org/news267254609.html Physics - Soft Matter Wed, 19 Sep 2012 06:23:38 EST news267254609 (Phys.org) -- When you’re just a few microns long, swimming can be difficult. At that size scale, the viscosity of water is more like that of honey, and momentum can’t be relied upon to maintain forward motion. http://phys.org/news263490502.html Physics - Soft Matter Mon, 06 Aug 2012 16:48:38 EST news263490502 (Phys.org) -- Snow avalanches, a real threat in countries from Switzerland to Afghanistan, are fundamentally a physics problem: What are the physical laws that govern how they start, grow and move, and can theoretical modeling help predict them? http://phys.org/news262412351.html Physics - Soft Matter Wed, 25 Jul 2012 05:19:17 EST news262412351 (Phys.org) -- From driftwood traveling down a river to a blood cell flowing through your artery, objects moving in a stream of fluid are mostly thought to passively go with the flow but not disturb it in controllable ways.  http://phys.org/news261804483.html Physics - Soft Matter Wed, 18 Jul 2012 04:28:14 EST news261804483 (Phys.org) -- A team of physicists has used the high-energy x-rays of the Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne National Laboratory to penetrate the everyday mystery of a splash, revealing previously hidden structures and dynamics. http://phys.org/news255772602.html Physics - Soft Matter Wed, 09 May 2012 08:56:59 EST news255772602 A new study by a team including scientists from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) indicates that thin polymer films can have different properties depending on the method by which they are made. The results suggest that deeper work is necessary to explore the best way of creating these films, which are used in applications ranging from high-tech mirrors to computer memory devices. http://phys.org/news255252882.html Physics - Soft Matter Thu, 03 May 2012 09:20:01 EST news255252882 Stir lots of small particles into water, and the resulting thick mixture appears highly viscous. When this dense suspension slips through a nozzle and forms a droplet, however, its behavior momentarily reveals a decidedly non-viscous side. University of Chicago physicists recorded this surprising behavior in laboratory experiments using high-speed photography that can capture action taking place in one hundred-thousandths of a second or less. http://phys.org/news252353064.html Physics - Soft Matter Fri, 30 Mar 2012 19:04:47 EST news252353064 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have solved one of the printing industry's greatest challenges - whether a liquid thread will break up into drops. http://phys.org/news248948500.html Physics - Soft Matter Mon, 20 Feb 2012 08:22:08 EST news248948500 (PhysOrg.com) -- Working together, Matthieu Gaudet and Steve Arscott from the University of Lille (IEMN lab) in France have built a circuit using a phenomenon known as photoelectrowetting, which allows a switch to be turned on by shining a light on it. As the two describe in their paper on the pre-print server arXiv, the circuit is made by using the principle of electrowetting to cause a drop of water to thin resulting in a conducting cantilever to fall towards a second conducting material allowing current to pass through. http://phys.org/news246276484.html Physics - Soft Matter Fri, 20 Jan 2012 10:08:32 EST news246276484 (PhysOrg.com) -- On a mission to manipulate microscale structures of materials, researchers engineer new methods of controlling surface tension. http://phys.org/news245404484.html Physics - Soft Matter Tue, 10 Jan 2012 08:30:03 EST news245404484 (PhysOrg.com) -- Microscopic spheres form strings in surprising alignments when suspended in a viscous fluid and sheared between two plates — a finding that will affect the way scientists think about the properties of such wide-ranging substances as shampoo and futuristic computer chips. http://phys.org/news243842336.html Physics - Soft Matter Fri, 23 Dec 2011 05:59:20 EST news243842336 By studying the behavior of tiny particles at an interface between oil and water, researchers at Harvard have discovered that stabilized emulsions may take longer to reach equilibrium than previously thought. http://phys.org/news242649942.html Physics - Soft Matter Fri, 09 Dec 2011 10:45:52 EST news242649942 An international research team has successfully developed a widely applicable method for discovering the physical foundations of complex fluids for the first time. Researchers at the University of Vienna and University of Rome have developed a microscopic theory that describes the interactions between the various components of a complex polymer mixture. This approach has now been experimentally proven by physicists from Julich, who conducted neutron scattering experiments in Grenoble. The results have been published in the June issue of Physical Review Letters. http://phys.org/news226139855.html Physics - Soft Matter Wed, 01 Jun 2011 09:37:48 EST news226139855 (PhysOrg.com) -- It is very difficult to overestimate the importance of colloidal suspensions. Besides being an integral part of our everyday life (food, cosmetics, drugs), they also serve as an excellent model system for basic science. http://phys.org/news224932752.html Physics - Soft Matter Wed, 18 May 2011 11:10:01 EST news224932752 Scientists from the University of Sheffield have developed pigment-free, intensely coloured polymer materials, which could provide new, anti-counterfeit devices on passports or banknotes due to their difficulty to copy. http://phys.org/news224932528.html Physics - Soft Matter Wed, 18 May 2011 10:15:53 EST news224932528 A new microscope invented by scientists at Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Janelia Farm Research Campus will let researchers use an exquisitely thin sheet of light -- similar to that used in supermarket bar-code scanners -- to peer inside single living cells, revealing the three-dimensional shapes of cellular landmarks in unprecedented detail. The microscopy technique images at high speed, so researchers can create dazzling movies that make biological processes, such as cell division, come alive. http://phys.org/news218482961.html Physics - Soft Matter Fri, 04 Mar 2011 17:42:57 EST news218482961 New York University physicists have developed a method for packing microscopic spheres that could lead to improvements in commercial products ranging from pharmaceutical lotions to ice cream. Their work, which relies on an innovative application of statistical mechanics, appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. http://phys.org/news218130756.html Physics - Soft Matter Mon, 28 Feb 2011 15:52:49 EST news218130756 Nematodes, microscopic worms, are making engineers look twice at their ability to exhibit the "Cheerios effect" when they move in a collective motion. http://phys.org/news216384041.html Physics - Soft Matter Tue, 08 Feb 2011 10:41:09 EST news216384041 (PhysOrg.com) -- A team of applied physicists at Harvard's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), Princeton, and Brandeis have demonstrated the formation of semipermeable vesicles from inorganic clay. http://phys.org/news216279355.html Physics - Soft Matter Mon, 07 Feb 2011 05:36:20 EST news216279355 In a finding that has been met with surprise and some controversy in the scientific community, researchers at MIT and elsewhere have discovered a basic property that governs the way water and many other liquids behave as their temperature changes. http://phys.org/news214225830.html Physics - Soft Matter Fri, 14 Jan 2011 11:11:21 EST news214225830 (PhysOrg.com) -- A team led by Patrick T. Mather, director of Syracuse Biomaterials Institute (SBI) and Milton and Ann Stevenson professor of biomedical and chemical engineering in Syracuse University’s L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science (LCS), has succeeded in applying the concept of functionally graded materials (FGMs) to shape memory polymers (SMPs). http://phys.org/news213447393.html Physics - Soft Matter Wed, 05 Jan 2011 10:56:48 EST news213447393 (PhysOrg.com) -- From atomic crystals to spiral galaxies, self-assembly is ubiquitous in nature. In biological processes, self-assembly at the molecular level is particularly prevalent. http://phys.org/news211478125.html Physics - Soft Matter Mon, 13 Dec 2010 16:00:07 EST news211478125 New research from the University of South Florida suggests that one of the evolutionary secrets of the shark's success hides in one of its tiniest traits -- flexible scales on the bodies of these peerless predators that make them better hunters by allowing them to change directions while moving at full speed. http://phys.org/news209797185.html Physics - Soft Matter Wed, 24 Nov 2010 05:00:40 EST news209797185 (PhysOrg.com) -- Understanding how thin-film coatings react to temperature changes could lead to more effective and durable sensors, solar-energy converters, safer medical implants and a host of other applications, says Jodie Lutkenhaus, assistant professor in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University, who has found that heating some of these films can increase their stability. http://phys.org/news194880103.html Physics - Soft Matter Fri, 04 Jun 2010 14:22:06 EST news194880103 Purple bacteria were among the first life forms on Earth. They are single celled microscopic organisms that play a vital role in sustaining the tree of life. This tiny organism lives in aquatic environments like the bottom of lakes and the colorful corals under the sea, using sunlight as their source of energy. Its natural design seems the best structural solution for harvesting solar energy. Neil Johnson, a physicist and head of the inter-disciplinary research group in complexity in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Miami, thinks its cellular arrangement could be adapted for use in solar panels and other energy conversion devices to offer a more efficient way to garner energy from the sun. http://phys.org/news192114527.html Physics - Soft Matter Mon, 03 May 2010 14:30:01 EST news192114527 Supercooling, a state where liquids do not solidify even below their normal freezing point, still puzzles scientists today. A good example of this phenomenon is found everyday in meteorology: clouds in high altitude are an accumulation of supercooled droplets of water below their freezing point. Scientists from the Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives (CEA), the Centre National de Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and the ESRF have found an experimental explanation of the phenomenon of supercooling. Their research is published today in Nature. http://phys.org/news191068504.html Physics - Soft Matter Wed, 21 Apr 2010 13:00:05 EST news191068504