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Soft Matter news
What's behind the 'pop and slosh' when opening a swing-top bottle of beer?
In a fun experiment, Max Koch, a researcher at the University of Göttingen in Germany—who also happens to be passionate about homebrewing—decided to use a high-speed camera to capture what occurs while opening a swing-top ...
General Physics
Mar 18, 2025
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Supercritical water's structure decoded: Analysis finds no molecular clusters, just fleeting bonds
Researchers at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, have shed light on the structure of supercritical water. In this state, which exists at extreme temperatures and pressures, water has the properties of both a liquid and a gas ...
Soft Matter
Mar 17, 2025
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90
From order to chaos: Understanding the principles behind collective motion in bacteria
The collective motion of bacteria—from stable swirling patterns to chaotic turbulent flows—has intrigued scientists for decades. When a bacterial swarm is confined in small circular space, stable rotating vortices are ...
General Physics
Mar 17, 2025
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Preventing freezer bottle explosions: New insights into ice crystallization and pressure
Have you ever left a bottle of liquid in the freezer, only to find it cracked or shattered? To save you from tedious freezer cleanups, researchers at the University of Amsterdam have investigated why this happens, and how ...
General Physics
Mar 14, 2025
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Water movement on surfaces makes more electric charge than expected
Researchers from RMIT University and the University of Melbourne have discovered that water generates an electrical charge up to 10 times greater than previously understood when it moves across a surface.
Condensed Matter
Mar 11, 2025
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Novel technique manipulates water waves to precisely control floating objects
A team of international scientists co-led by Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) have discovered a way to manipulate water waves, allowing them to trap and precisely move floating objects—almost ...
Soft Matter
Mar 11, 2025
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A pinch of salt can steer colloids for improved water purification and drug delivery
The ability to better steer particles suspended in liquids could lead to better water purification processes, new drug delivery systems, and other applications. The key ingredient, say Yale researchers, is a pinch of salt.
Soft Matter
Mar 6, 2025
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39
From classical to quantum: Navier–Stokes equations adapted for 1D quantum liquids
Although Navier–Stokes equations are the foundation of modern hydrodynamics, adapting them to quantum systems has so far been a major challenge. Researchers from the Faculty of Physics at the University of Warsaw, Maciej ...
Soft Matter
Mar 4, 2025
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181
High-speed cameras capture hot droplets bouncing across a cool pan
When a droplet of water falls on a hot pan, it dances across the surface, skimming on a thin layer of steam like a tiny hovercraft; this is known as the Leidenfrost effect. But now, researchers know what happens when a hot ...
Soft Matter
Mar 3, 2025
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38
Bubbles that break rules: A fluid discovery that defies logic
A team led by researchers at UNC-Chapel Hill have made an extraordinary discovery that is reshaping our understanding of bubbles and their movement. Picture tiny air bubbles inside a container filled with liquid. When the ...
General Physics
Feb 25, 2025
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Scientists map elusive liquid-liquid transition point using deep neural network
A new Nature Physics study has shed light on the long-hypothesized liquid-liquid critical point where water simultaneously exists in two distinct liquid forms, opening new possibilities for experimental validation.
Ultrasound-activated microbubbles form high-speed jets for drug delivery
ETH Zurich researchers have investigated how tiny gas bubbles can deliver drugs into cells in a targeted manner using ultrasound. For the first time, they have visualized how tiny cyclic microjets liquid jets generated by ...
Soft Matter
Feb 21, 2025
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127
High-speed videos show what happens when a droplet splashes into a pool
Rain can freefall at speeds of up to 25 miles per hour. If the droplets land in a puddle or pond, they can form a crown-like splash that, with enough force, can dislodge any surface particles and launch them into the air.
Soft Matter
Feb 21, 2025
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Study unveils new extrusion-induced instabilities in viscoelastic materials
Soft viscoelastic solids are flexible materials that can return to their original shape after being stretched. Due to the unique properties driving their deformation, these materials can sometimes behave and change shape ...
Physicists model how amorphous solids lose their stability
Why do avalanches start to slide? And what happens inside the "pile of snow?" If you ask yourself these questions, you are very close to a physical problem. This phenomenon not only occurs on mountain peaks and in snow masses, ...
Condensed Matter
Feb 17, 2025
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Generating record-speed waves on extremely water-repellent surfaces
Ripples, like ones produced by raindrops falling in a puddle, are also called capillary waves. Studied since antiquity, they have garnered considerable interest in modern science due to their ability to reveal information ...
General Physics
Feb 13, 2025
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Active matter: Scientists create three-dimensional 'synthetic worms'
Researchers at the University of Bristol have made a breakthrough in the development of "life-like" synthetic materials which are able to move by themselves like worms.
Soft Matter
Feb 13, 2025
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'Water tweezers': New technique generates topological structures with gravity water waves
A team of physicists at Fudan University, working with colleagues from Henan University, both in China, and from Nanyang Technological University, in Singapore and Donostia International Physics Center, in Spain, has developed ...
Machine learning and physics merge to enhance liquid-gas phase transition predictions
Combining concepts from statistical physics with machine learning, researchers at the University of Bayreuth have shown that highly accurate and efficient predictions can now be made as to whether a substance will be liquid ...
Condensed Matter
Feb 12, 2025
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85
The dynamics of fluid flow on (and off) inclined fibers
The commonplace phenomenon of liquid drops falling from a surface is—perhaps surprisingly—not yet fully understood by scientists. Understanding the complex interactions between the forces involved here would be helpful ...
Soft Matter
Feb 11, 2025
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New DESI results strengthen hints that dark energy may evolve
Which tree species fix the most carbon?
