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Soft Matter news
Polymers that crawl like worms: How materials can develop direction without being told where to go
Researchers at the University of Vienna have uncovered a surprising phenomenon: polymer chains with segments that simply fluctuate at different intensities can spontaneously develop directional, persistent motion when densely ...
General Physics
Mar 5, 2026
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Reduce rust by dumping your wok twice, and other kitchen tips
When you reach the bottom of a container of milk or honey, you might be tempted to tip the container over to get that last pesky little bit out. After all, you only need another teaspoon for that recipe, and you're sure it's ...
Soft Matter
Mar 3, 2026
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Scientists unveil universal aging mechanism in glassy materials
"Glass" has a unique and distinct meaning in physics—one that refers not just to the transparent material we associate with window glass. Instead, it refers to any system that looks solid but is not in true equilibrium ...
Soft Matter
Mar 2, 2026
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Simulations show a path to 'ideal glass' with crystal-like entropy
The types of glass that we encounter in everyday life, such as window glass or smartphone screens, are disordered solids. This means that they consist of particles locked in place, like those in solids, but arranged randomly, ...
Tackling industry's burdensome bubble problem
In industrial plants around the world, tiny bubbles cause big problems. Bubbles clog filters, disrupt chemical reactions, reduce throughput during biomanufacturing, and can even cause overheating in electronics and nuclear ...
Soft Matter
Feb 26, 2026
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A puddle that jumps: What bubble bursts reveal about water on lotus-like surfaces
Water droplets have a unique ability: They can leap from a surface on their own. This can happen for a variety of reasons, such as when a surface repels water or when heat is involved, such as a water or oil droplet skittering ...
General Physics
Feb 26, 2026
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A world first at the microscopic scale: Metamaterials that can shrink and expand on their own
Leiden physicists Daniela Kraft and Julio Melio have created soft structures that can take on different shapes without any external drive in their lab. They present their research on microscale metamaterials in Nature—a ...
General Physics
Feb 25, 2026
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Living tissues are shaped by self-propelled topological defects, biophysicists find
With a new mathematical model, a team of biophysicists has revealed fresh insights into how biological tissues are shaped by the active motion of structural imperfections known as "topological defects." Published in Physical ...
Particles don't always go with the flow (and why that matters)
It is commonly assumed that tiny particles just go with the flow as they make their way through soil, biological tissue, and other complex materials. But a team of Yale researchers led by Professor Amir Pahlavan shows that ...
General Physics
Feb 19, 2026
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A smart fluid that can be reconfigured with temperature
Imagine a "smart fluid" whose internal structure can be rearranged just by changing temperature. In a new study published in Matter, researchers report a way to overcome a long-standing limitation in a class of "smart fluids" ...
Optics & Photonics
Feb 17, 2026
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A new turbulence equation for eddy interactions: AI and physics team up to tackle notoriously difficult question
The currents of the oceans, the roiling surface of the sun, and the clouds of smoke billowing off a forest fire—all are governed by the same laws of physics and give rise to a complex phenomenon known as turbulence. But ...
General Physics
Feb 12, 2026
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Rocket science? 3D printing soft matter in zero gravity
What happens to soft matter when gravity disappears? To answer this, UvA physicists launched a fluid dynamics experiment on a sounding rocket. The suborbital rocket reached an altitude of 267 km before falling back to Earth, ...
Soft Matter
Feb 11, 2026
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AI method accelerates liquid simulations by learning fundamental physical relationships
Researchers at the University of Bayreuth have developed a method using artificial intelligence that can significantly speed up the calculation of liquid properties. The AI approach predicts the chemical potential—an indispensable ...
Soft Matter
Feb 11, 2026
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How charges invert a long-standing empirical law in glass physics
If you've ever watched a glass blower at work, you've seen a material behaving in a very special way. As it cools, the viscosity of molten glass increases steadily but gradually, allowing it to be shaped without a mold. Physicists ...
Supercomputer simulations test turbulence theories at record 35 trillion grid points
Using the Frontier supercomputer at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology have performed the largest direct numerical simulation (DNS) of turbulence ...
Soft Matter
Feb 9, 2026
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Seeing the whole from a part: Revealing hidden turbulent structures from limited observations and equations
The irregular, swirling motion of fluids we call turbulence can be found everywhere, from stirring in a teacup to currents in the planetary atmosphere. This phenomenon is governed by the Navier-Stokes equations—a set of ...
General Physics
Feb 9, 2026
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Scientists discover 'levitating' time crystals that you can hold in your hand
Time crystals, a collection of particles that "tick"—or move back and forth in repeating cycles—were first theorized and then discovered about a decade ago. While scientists have yet to create commercial or industrial ...
General Physics
Feb 6, 2026
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Tiny droplets navigate mazes using 'chemical echolocation,' without sensors or computers
A recent study by a team of researchers led by TU Darmstadt has found that tiny amounts of liquid can navigate their way through unknown environments like living cells—without sensors, computers or external control. The ...
General Physics
Feb 3, 2026
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Using complex networks to tame combustion instability
Engineers have long battled a problem that can cause loud, damaging oscillations inside gas turbines and aircraft engines: combustion instability. These unwanted pressure fluctuations create vibrations so intense that they ...
General Physics
Jan 31, 2026
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Superfluids are supposed to flow indefinitely. Physicists just watched one stop moving
Ordinary matter, when cooled, transitions from a gas into a liquid. Cool it further still, and it freezes into a solid. Quantum matter, however, can behave very differently. In the early 20th century, researchers discovered ...
Soft Matter
Jan 28, 2026
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More news
Physics of foam strangely resembles AI training
A 3D-printed Christmas tree made entirely of ice
Making lighter work of calculating fluid and heat flow
The hidden physics of knot formation in fluids
Ultrashort laser pulses catch a snapshot of a 'molecular handshake'
Other news
Large area MoS₂ reduces energy loss in magnetic memory films
A new 'molecular switch' for inborn immunity identified
Meet 'Tous'—an entirely new genus of mammal
X-raying rocks reveals their carbon-storing capacity
