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Soft Matter news
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
9 hours ago
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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
11 hours ago
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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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Coral study could help explain infertility and ovarian cancer by decoding cilia-driven fluid flows
A study by researchers at The University of Manchester, carried out alongside the Universities of Melbourne and Copenhagen, could hold the key to understanding the causes of long-term health problems, such as infertility ...
Soft Matter
May 27, 2026
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Data-driven model captures dynamics of turbulence at scale
Whether the dust borne on the violent winds of a tornado or the sugar grains in a swirled cup of coffee, the behavior of particles carried along in turbulence is subject to some similarities—all of them difficult to predict ...
General Physics
May 26, 2026
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Surface design transforms thermal management and enables frictionless systems
A research team led by Professor Steven Wang, Associate Vice President (Resources Planning) and Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and School of Energy and Environment, has designed a revolutionary ...
General Physics
May 26, 2026
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Visualizing how flutter kick vertical vortices generate propulsion and suppress body sway in swimmers
Researchers at University of Tsukuba used advanced techniques to visualize the water flow generated by flutter kicking during front-crawl swimming. They analyzed how this kicking motion generates propulsive force and contributes ...
Soft Matter
May 25, 2026
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Physicists figure out how to reduce formation of 'viscous fingers'
When they reach the bottom of a soap dispenser, frugal handwashers might try adding water to the bottle to push out the last bit of soap. But usually, the water drills right through the soap and jets out an only slightly ...
Soft Matter
May 22, 2026
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Overlooked 'history force' may skew particle motion by up to 60% in shaken fluids
Physicists at the University of Bayreuth have investigated the so-called Basset–Boussinesq history force acting on particles in fluids. Due to the difficulty of calculating it, this force is often neglected—a fact that Bayreuth ...
Soft Matter
May 19, 2026
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The structure of water: Entropy determines whether ions stick
Water molecules do not simply swirl around in complete disorder; they can form certain preferred structures. This scientific fact is often presented in entirely unscientific ways. For example, when people speak of an alleged ...
General Physics
May 18, 2026
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A hidden threshold enables tunable control of liquid crystal helices for energy-efficient technologies
Liquid crystals are an integral part of modern technology, ranging from displays to advanced sensory systems. In a study published in Scientific Reports, researchers from the Institute of Experimental Physics of the Slovak ...
Soft Matter
May 15, 2026
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Tiny forces, big effects: How particle interactions control the flow of soft materials
Sitting in a restaurant, you reach for the ketchup bottle, eyeing the basket of fries in front of you. You give the bottle a shake, then a tap. For a moment, nothing happens—the ketchup clings stubbornly to the glass. Then, ...
General Physics
May 13, 2026
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Liquid crystals enable on‑demand skyrmion formation at room temperature
Researchers have recently found a new way to summon useful structures in magnetic materials using light, heat, and electric fields. This new method, described in a new study published in Physical Review Letters, may lead ...
Magnetic checkerboard separates microparticles by size and sends them along different paths
A team of researchers from the Universities of Tübingen, Bayreuth, and Kassel, and the Polish Academy of Sciences has developed a method for precisely controlling the movement of magnetic microparticles based on their size. ...
Condensed Matter
May 7, 2026
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More news
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
X-ray lasers enable the discovery of a critical point in water
Other news
Could Earth have sent life to Jupiter's moon Europa?
Super El Niños may lose their punch in a warming world
When glaciers vanish, so does the hidden life they support
RNA barcoding approach reveals previously unknown virus–host relationships
Physicists identify upper limit to resistivity in a pure metal
Building a better, more precise droplet
