https://phys.org/physics-news/soft-matter/ en-us The latest news on soft matter, soft condensed matter, liquids, colloids, polymers, foams, gels, granular materials An AI model informed by calculations from a quantum computer can better predict the behavior of a complex physical system over the long term than current best models that use only conventional computers, according to a new study led by UCL (University College London) researchers. The findings, published in the journal Science Advances, could improve models predicting how liquids and gases move and interact (fluid dynamics), used in areas ranging from climate science to transport, medicine and energy generation. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-quantum-ai-term-turbulence-memory.html Soft Matter Fri, 17 Apr 2026 14:00:07 EDT news695574962 What physical processes govern the movement of microscopic structures capable of interacting with their environment? The answer lies in two mechanisms: self-propulsion, to escape unfavorable locations; and slow diffusion, to move toward more advantageous ones. This is the finding of scientists Jacopo Romano and Andrea Gambassi from SISSA-Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati in their new study published in Physical Review Letters. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-propulsion-diffusion-bacteria-cells-colloids.html Soft Matter Wed, 15 Apr 2026 16:10:01 EDT news695485921 From ketchup to quicksand, non-Newtonian fluids have long fascinated and puzzled scientists. Unlike ordinary fluids, their flow properties change depending on how much force is applied, but the precise mechanics governing this behavior remain poorly understood—particularly under rapid deformation. Now, a team led by Xiang Cheng at the University of Minnesota has used droplet impacts to probe these dynamics in new detail, uncovering behaviors which have eluded physicists so far. Their findings appear in Physical Review Letters. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-droplet-impacts-reveal-physics-thickening.html General Physics Tue, 14 Apr 2026 10:40:04 EDT news695376943 In a tank on the bottom floor of a University of Chicago research laboratory, scientists summon "The Blob" into existence by firing water jets to create an artfully choreographed series of rings. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-blob-tank-scientists-secrets-turbulence.html General Physics Tue, 14 Apr 2026 09:00:01 EDT news695374501 A new study by scientists in the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) shows that when a pressure disturbance moves across an ultrasoft elastic material, such as a gel or a biological tissue, it generates a V-shaped wake that's strikingly similar to the waves that travel behind a boat. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-ship-soft-tissues-exploring-fluid.html Condensed Matter Mon, 13 Apr 2026 18:00:01 EDT news695312041 An international team of scientists, including researchers from Loughborough University, has developed a method to dramatically speed up the discovery and design of advanced materials. The study, published in Physical Review Letters, shows how the new approach can map complex phase diagrams in as little as a day—rather than weeks or months—and pinpoint where important structures, including crystals and quasicrystals, are likely to form. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-rapid-method-uncovers-hidden-materials.html General Physics Mon, 13 Apr 2026 17:20:03 EDT news695311861 David J. Silvester, a mathematics professor at the University of Manchester, has developed a novel machine-learning method to detect sudden changes in fluid behavior, improving speed and the cost of identifying these instabilities and overcoming one of the major obstacles faced when using machine learning to simulate physical systems. The findings are published in the Journal of Computational Physics. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-ai-method-flags-fluid-simulations.html Soft Matter Thu, 09 Apr 2026 09:00:01 EDT news694943527 Materials that repel water are used in countless applications, including industrial separation processes, routine laboratory pipetting, and medical devices. When water touches these surfaces, the interface where they meet tends to acquire a small electrical charge—an effect that is ubiquitous, yet poorly understood. KAUST researchers have now studied this in detail and their findings could have broad implications. The findings are published in the journal Langmuir. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-repelling-surfaces-reveal-effects.html Soft Matter Mon, 06 Apr 2026 18:40:01 EDT news694699416 In physics, some waves behave in a surprising way: instead of spreading out and fading, they hold their shape as they travel at constant speeds. These unusual waves, called solitons, have interested scientists since they were first observed in canals in the 19th century. Today, researchers study solitons in everything from optical fibers to biological systems. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-strained-liquid-crystals-soliton-bullets.html Soft Matter Mon, 30 Mar 2026 18:20:07 EDT news694104181 With a new lab-based experiment, researchers in the UK and France have recreated the characteristic cascades of energy and angular momentum that underpin key features of Earth's atmosphere. Reporting in Physical Review Letters, a team led by Peter Read at the University of Oxford has gained fresh insights into how energy fluctuations in turbulent flows are linked to their size, while also uncovering behaviors that current atmospheric models can't yet explain. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-lab-based-mini-atmosphere-reveals.html General Physics Sat, 28 Mar 2026 13:10:01 EDT news693564715 In a development that could shift our basic understanding of fluid mechanics, researchers from Drexel University have reported that, given the right circumstances, it is possible to induce a simple liquid to fracture like a solid object. Recently published in the journal Physical Review Letters, the research shows how viscous liquids can suddenly break if stretched with enough force. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-liquids-fracture-solids.html Soft Matter Sat, 28 Mar 2026 08:00:03 EDT news693752698 Using X-ray lasers, researchers at Stockholm University have been able to determine the existence of a critical point in supercooled water at around -63 °C and 1,000 atmospheres. Ordinary water at higher temperatures and lower pressures is strongly affected by the presence of this critical point, causing the origin of its strange properties. The findings are published in the journal Science. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-ray-lasers-enable-discovery-critical.html General Physics Thu, 26 Mar 2026 14:00:14 EDT news693735481 A fascination with fish gills has led researchers at Cornell to develop a bio-inspired approach to mixing heat and molecules in fluids—findings that could inform future biomedical devices, heat exchangers and soft robotics. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-fish-gill-panels-reveal-path.html General Physics Tue, 24 Mar 2026 12:20:03 EDT news693570121 A humble droplet can be an immensely useful tool for a number of fields, from medicine to manufacturing. Controlling the size of the droplet, though, is an important—and very tricky—task. With unprecedented precision, a team of researchers determined how droplets break up into smaller ones, at what size, and under what conditions. The results of this study are published in Soft Matter. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-precise-droplet.html Soft Matter Thu, 19 Mar 2026 09:20:02 EDT news693130622 Glass appears to be a solid, but in theory it sometimes behaves more like an extremely slow liquid. Physicists in Utrecht now show that glass-like structures can also exist in equilibrium, which is something many theories say should be impossible. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-glass-solid-super-liquid-physicists.html Condensed Matter Wed, 18 Mar 2026 18:00:03 EDT news693065221 A new study revisits a century-old question about how turbulence starts. The findings could potentially influence not only aircraft engineering but even the design of mechanical heart valves, and treatment of heart disease. The study is published in Scientific Reports. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-simulations-breakthrough-turbulence.html Soft Matter Wed, 11 Mar 2026 17:10:12 EDT news692467501 What governs the speed at which raindrops fall, sediment settles in river estuaries, and matter is ejected during a supernova? These questions circle around one, deceitfully simple factor: the rate at which a fluid filled with particles mixes with a particle-free one. Raindrops travel from one layer of air to another; sediment falls from river to seawater, and ejecta travels from the exploding star through the surrounding dust cloud. The same principle dictates sediment mixing in rising smoke, dust storms, nuclear explosions, hydrocarbon refining, metal smelting, wastewater treatment, and more. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-fluid-simulation-unprecedented-scale-toolkit.html General Physics Wed, 11 Mar 2026 17:10:07 EDT news692463481 Due to climate change, plants' pollination season has been growing longer and longer. As a result, people are exposed to allergens for extended periods each year, raising a major public health concern. Researchers from Embry‑Riddle Aeronautical University, the University of Rouen Normandy and the University of Lille have developed an advanced computational model of outdoor airflow through trees. They recently used it to study how a tree's geometry affects the dynamics and dispersion of its airborne pollen grains. The work appears in Physics of Fluids. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-pollen-urban-decisions-green-spaces.html General Physics Tue, 10 Mar 2026 11:00:06 EDT news692339214 No two snowflakes may be the same, but models that fail to take these variations into consideration often fall short when calculating the way snow accumulates on roofs. In Physics of Fluids, researchers from Harbin Institute of Technology in China modeled the way snow gathers on a roof based on snowflake size and distribution. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-roof-simulation-turbulence-snowflake-size.html General Physics Tue, 10 Mar 2026 11:00:01 EDT news692265121 Controlling light with light is a long-sought goal for computing and communication technologies. Achieving this capability would allow optical signals to be processed without converting them into electrical signals, potentially enabling faster and more energy-efficient devices. In recent years, researchers have begun exploring an unexpected platform for this purpose: soft matter. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-nanosecond-liquid-crystal-droplet.html Optics & Photonics Mon, 09 Mar 2026 17:30:01 EDT news692295001 In physics, the mesoscale lies between the microscopic and the macroscopic. It is not just the domain of tiny living creatures like small larvae, shrimp, and jellyfish, but also where physics equations become extreme. While the macroscopic realm is governed by inertia and the microscopic by viscosity, the mesoscale is both and neither, requiring a new set of physics to describe it. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-mesoscale-swimmers-pave-drug-delivery.html General Physics Sun, 08 Mar 2026 16:00:01 EDT news691772107 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 packed—even though nothing in the system points them in any particular direction. This "entropic tug of war," driven by fundamental physical constraints, could help explain how DNA organizes and moves inside living cells and may lead to new materials. The study is published in Physical Review X. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-polymers-worms-materials-told.html General Physics Thu, 05 Mar 2026 13:20:05 EST news691934941 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 in there. From emptying jars to drying dishes, research about thin film flows in the kitchen highlights everyday connections to physics. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-rust-dumping-wok-kitchen.html Soft Matter Tue, 03 Mar 2026 11:00:06 EST news691669855 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, similarly to how they would be in a liquid. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-simulations-path-ideal-glass-crystal.html General Physics Sun, 01 Mar 2026 13:00:03 EST news691408346 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 power plants. MIT Professor Kripa Varanasi has long studied methods to reduce bubble disruption. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-tackling-industry-burdensome-problem.html Soft Matter Thu, 26 Feb 2026 09:40:01 EST news691318981 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 across a hot pan. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-puddle-reveal-lotus-surfaces.html General Physics Thu, 26 Feb 2026 05:00:11 EST news691261682 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 breakthrough that opens the door to smart, reconfigurable materials and microscopic robots. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-world-microscopic-scale-metamaterials.html General Physics Wed, 25 Feb 2026 17:40:01 EST news691247370 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 Review Letters, the results build on our latest understanding of tissue formation and could even help resolve long-standing experimental mysteries surrounding our own organs. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-tissues-propelled-topological-defects-biophysicists.html General Physics Fri, 20 Feb 2026 13:30:01 EST news690630434 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 even gentle chemical gradients, such as a small change in salt concentration, can dramatically reshape how particles move through porous materials. Their results are published in Science Advances. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-particles-dont.html General Physics Thu, 19 Feb 2026 10:03:35 EST news690717781 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" called nematic liquid crystal microcolloids, allowing for reconfigurable self-assembly of micrometer-sized particles dispersed in a nematic liquid crystal host. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-smart-fluid-reconfigured-temperature.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 17 Feb 2026 12:20:23 EST news690553201