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Soft Matter news
How physics and mathematical modeling help us make better clothes
A new paper in the journal Nature Physics offers insights into the physics of liquid droplets—and while many people may not appreciate the mathematical accomplishment, they will benefit from the athletic wear and raincoats ...
General Physics
Jul 18, 2026
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'Silly sprinklers' put in reverse to further unravel decades-old physics puzzle
Each summer, lawns are marked by a familiar addition: "silly sprinklers," whose loops and spirals spew water in creative ways. While seemingly frivolous in their construction, a team of mathematicians has used their design ...
Soft Matter
Jul 13, 2026
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Oobleck droplets reveal 5 ways cornstarch 'goo' behaves when hitting water
Cornstarch can thicken soup or serve as a base for a DIY shampoo, but there's more to the humble pantry staple. Given the right conditions, it seems to defy the laws of physics. Mixing cornstarch with water creates "oobleck"—a ...
Soft Matter
Jul 13, 2026
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Earth's deepest rocks help define upper limit for viscosity beyond which materials effectively become rigid
Viscosity is one of the most fundamental physical properties used to describe how materials flow. It governs the movement of liquids, molten rocks and even slowly deforming regions deep inside the Earth. While scientists ...
General Physics
Jul 6, 2026
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Scientists find molecular-level evidence for two structures in liquid water
A study published in Nature Physics provides new molecular-level evidence from simulations that liquid water is not a single uniform substance, but a constantly shifting mixture of two distinct microscopic structures.
Scientists catch classical space-time crystals moving like Majorana quasiparticles
A research team from Hiroshima University, the University of Colorado, and other collaborators have demonstrated that space-time crystals—exotic structures that, under external drive, loop endlessly through both space and ...
Soft Matter
Jun 24, 2026
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Espresso 'pucks' stop behaving predictably above certain pressures
When a physics student asked baristas at the Warsaw Coffee Conference what their biggest question for scientists was, the baristas said they wanted to know how to stop channeling during brewing.
General Physics
Jun 23, 2026
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A minimal model for how a cell takes shape from the inside
Researchers at the University of Twente and Utrecht University have packed rigid, rod-shaped particles into soft lipid containers the size of a living cell and watched the container and its contents reshape each other. The ...
Soft Matter
Jun 22, 2026
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Tiny objects swimming in a superfluid of light move against the flow
Superfluids are intriguing states of matter in which particles behave like a giant collective wave, allowing them to flow without any friction. When this fluid flows past a fixed obstacle at a velocity below a specific threshold, ...
Ultrasound propagation in porous rocks: Theory identifies three distinct wave modes
Ultrasound-based irradiation of rock formations has attracted considerable attention as a technique for enhancing heavy-oil (high-viscosity crude oil) recovery from deep underground reservoirs. However, a unified theoretical ...
Soft Matter
Jun 18, 2026
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How do flocking birds and schools of fish move? New research offers crystal-clear answer
Flocking birds and schools of fish are a familiar sight. While previous research has uncovered the broad dynamics driving these movements, their underlying intricacies remain a mystery. Now a study by a team of New York University ...
Soft Matter
Jun 18, 2026
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Random deformation lets glassy materials store precise mechanical memories, simulations reveal
Amorphous materials such as glass are solids whose internal structure lacks a repeating pattern. Their molecules are arranged in a random and irregular way. Surprisingly, these disordered materials can "remember" past mechanical ...
Condensed Matter
Jun 16, 2026
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Intermolecular collisions may explain why organic radical fluids become unusually magnetic
Certain substances can become magnetic when exposed to an external magnetic field. Magnetic susceptibility measures how easily a material can be magnetized. Materials known as organic radicals have been noted to possess anomalously ...
Condensed Matter
Jun 16, 2026
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When motion prevents order in active matter systems
Pack enough string-like objects together, and they will begin to align with one another. But replace the strings with worms or bacteria living in your gut, and this self-organization becomes much more difficult. A team of ...
Soft Matter
Jun 13, 2026
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New X-ray method captures solid-liquid interfaces and bulk liquids simultaneously
Researchers have developed a method for making simultaneous soft X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) measurements of solid-liquid interfaces and bulk liquids. By controlling the thickness of the liquid layer, they obtained ...
General Physics
Jun 4, 2026
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Temperature gaps help sneeze clouds stay denser and travel farther, experiments show
When a person coughs or sneezes, they expel a cloud of microscopic particles capable of carrying viruses and bacteria that act as vectors for respiratory diseases such as flu, COVID-19 or tuberculosis. Understanding how these ...
Soft Matter
Jun 3, 2026
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Water-wave tweezers steer tiny 'surfers' without touching them
Summer brings with it the sight of surfers moving seamlessly across wave crests, with ocean waters carrying them along coastlines. A team of scientists has now created a similar phenomenon—with small objects rather than surfers—that ...
Soft Matter
Jun 3, 2026
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Out-of-plane ice bridges reveal new way to suppress frost spreading
A research team led by Professor Nenad Miljkovic in The Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has published a breakthrough study in Nature Physics. The work reports the first experimental ...
General Physics
Jun 3, 2026
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Molecular glasses solve long-standing Arrhenius paradox
Glasses are non-crystalline but solid states of matter in which molecules and atoms are not arranged into a regular crystal lattice, but rather in a disordered pattern. Glassy materials are widely used in various settings, ...
Leaving gravity behind: Experiment from ISS reveals how particles alter turbulent flow behavior
After traveling hundreds of miles above Earth and spending months aboard the International Space Station, a University of Delaware experiment has returned to campus, bringing new data on how turbulence behaves in microgravity.
General Physics
May 28, 2026
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More news
Data-driven model captures dynamics of turbulence at scale
The structure of water: Entropy determines whether ions stick
Light-responsive hydrogels enable fast and precise control of soft materials
Investigating the disordered heart of glass
Why do high-speed particles bounce higher in wet collisions?
New methods can help study the phenomenon of turbulence
Other news
Shroud of Turin DNA sheds light on its biological history
Light-driven chemistry steers electron transfers beyond redox limits
Why some human brains can outlast other soft tissues after death
New web tool maps fossil locations across ancient continents in seconds
Children and monkeys share common understanding of geometry
Japan's first mosasaur premaxilla fossil hints at a new species
What explains gender pay gaps in academia?
How the most widespread parasite on Earth reads its genome
Transforming vibrations into clean fuels and chemicals through piezosynthesis
New cell imaging method measures protein folding in living organelles
