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Soft Matter news
Enhancing heat transfer using the turbulent flow of viscoelastic fluids
Fluids play a crucial role in industrial processes like cooling, heating, and mixing. Traditionally, most industries would utilize Newtonian fluids—which have a constant viscosity—for such processes. However, many are ...
General Physics
1 hour ago
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An exception to the laws of thermodynamics: Shape-recovering liquid defies textbooks
A team of researchers led by a physics graduate student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst made the surprising discovery of what they call a "shape-recovering liquid," which defies some long-held expectations derived ...
General Physics
4 hours ago
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Riding the AI wave toward rapid, precise ocean simulations
AI has created a sea change in society; now, it is setting its sights on the sea itself. Researchers at Osaka Metropolitan University have developed a machine learning-powered fluid simulation model that significantly reduces ...
General Physics
Apr 3, 2025
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Crystal melting and the glass transition obey the same physical law
The melting of crystals is the process by which an increase in temperature induces the disruption of the ordered crystalline lattice, leading to the disordered structure and highly fluctuating dynamic behavior of liquids. ...
Vincent van Gogh's 'The Starry Night' is not a masterpiece when it comes to flow physics, researchers say
The Dutch master Vincent van Gogh may have painted one of Western history's most enduring works, but "The Starry Night" is not a masterpiece of flow physics—despite recent attention to its captivating swirls, according ...
General Physics
Apr 1, 2025
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A step toward plant-based gelatin: Gum tragacanth shows promise for reducing animal use
With increased awareness about food sources and their environmental impacts, replacing animal-derived products in food and drugs is a significant research area. One common—but often overlooked—animal protein is gelatin, ...
Soft Matter
Apr 1, 2025
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Polymerlike worms wriggle their way through mazes
In a crowded room, we naturally move slower than in an empty space. Surprisingly, worms can show the exact opposite behavior: In an environment with randomly scattered obstacles, they tend to move faster when there are more ...
Soft Matter
Mar 27, 2025
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Hypersonic shock waves: 3D simulations expose new flow disturbances
At hypersonic speeds, complexities occur when the gases interact with the surface of the vehicle, such as boundary layers and shock waves. Researchers in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at The Grainger College of ...
General Physics
Mar 26, 2025
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Quantum computing tackles classical fluid dynamics challenges
Researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory have tested a quantum computing approach to an old challenge: solving classical fluid dynamics problems.
Soft Matter
Mar 25, 2025
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Engineers redefine how heat transfers on advanced surfaces
When University of Texas at Dallas researchers tested a new surface that they designed to collect and remove condensates rapidly, the results surprised them. The mechanical engineers' design collected more condensates, or ...
Condensed Matter
Mar 24, 2025
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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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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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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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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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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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More news
Physicists model how amorphous solids lose their stability
Study reveals how swimming speed alters foot vortex dynamics
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