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 When water drains from a bathtub, a whirlpool often forms above the drain, and its narrow core can start to wobble and twist. For almost 150 years, physicists have predicted that these wobbles can become turbulent, passing energy from large ripples down to ever smaller ones. Until now, however, this "Kelvin-wave turbulence" had never been seen directly in an experiment. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-whirlpool-tank-reveals-turbulence.html General Physics Thu, 24 Sep 2026 10:20:09 EDT news709460308 A new study led by researchers from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) reveals that living matter violates previously known physical principles of symmetry when cellular flows form and break down collective patterns. The research, published in Nature Physics, challenges conventional liquid-crystal physics by showing that moving single-celled bacteria and human respiratory cells spontaneously break mirror symmetry, moving in curved, irreversible spiral paths. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-swarming-bacteria-tissue-cells-defies.html General Physics Tue, 22 Sep 2026 17:40:05 EDT news709313101 Before diving into the mystery of glass, theoretical physicist Corentin Laudicina takes us back to high school physics for a moment. Although he has spent years studying exactly what happens in a material during the glass transition, he also understands that his research is not the easiest thing to explain off the cuff at the cafeteria table. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-cooling-liquids-reveal-limiting-particle.html General Physics Sun, 20 Sep 2026 17:30:01 EDT news708868583 When it rains, traveling waves appear on steep asphalt pavement, slowly making their way down the slope. Because these so-called "roll waves" propagate without deforming and are typically characterized by abrupt discontinuities, they play an important role in hydraulic engineering. Understanding unsteady flows like roll waves is crucial for the design, management and safety of hydraulic structures such as dam spillway chutes. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-emerge-uniform-destabilizes-steep-slopes.html General Physics Wed, 16 Sep 2026 17:00:06 EDT news708783841 Whether on a windowpane at home or during the industrial cleaning of computer chips: droplets sliding over solid surfaces become electrically charged. Yet the physical mechanism behind this charging remains a subject of debate. This charging is usually attributed to the exchange of charged particles (ions) at the interface between the droplet and the surface. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-droplets-mechanism-mobile-ions.html Condensed Matter Wed, 16 Sep 2026 14:40:04 EDT news708779461 Soft materials such as colloidal suspensions, emulsions, foams and gels often display complex and unusual behaviors compared with ordinary solids or liquids. From a mechanical point of view, for instance, they can resist deformation like solids, but they can also start to flow like liquids when a sufficiently strong external drive is applied. This transition from solid-like to liquid-like behavior, known as "yielding," is central to the physics of soft amorphous materials and to many industrial and biological processes. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-simulations-link-unusual-particle-diffusion.html Soft Matter Wed, 16 Sep 2026 05:00:11 EDT news708270421 How can we predict the way a real material, such as a polymer, responds mechanically over timescales ranging from the ultrafast motion of atoms to the slow deformations measured in a laboratory? This is a deceptively difficult problem. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-atomic-vibrations-laboratory-mechanics-bridging.html Condensed Matter Mon, 14 Sep 2026 18:00:06 EDT news708599540 Tiny, soft polymer particles—known as microgels—can help to stabilize extremely thin liquid jets. How this works is the finding of a study led by researchers at TU Darmstadt, which has been published in Nature Communications. The findings could be of interest for the development of needle-free medical injection systems. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-tiny-polymer-particles-jets-stable.html Condensed Matter Mon, 07 Sep 2026 12:00:08 EDT news707995381 An international collaboration of researchers has used ANSTO's facilities to uncover new properties of one of the most fundamental everyday materials, water, and answer an important scientific question. The findings, published in Nature Communications, have practical implications for understanding water at very low temperatures. The findings are relevant to cryopreservation of biological materials, food-freezing technologies and understanding water in living cells, where it is often confined at the nanoscale. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-soft-nanoscale-confinement-ice-exposing.html Condensed Matter Thu, 03 Sep 2026 19:40:01 EDT news707669463 A new study led by surfing scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego revealed the physical relationships underlying a pattern familiar to generations of surfers. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-surf-seafloor.html Soft Matter Thu, 03 Sep 2026 12:40:01 EDT news707644621 An AI assistant helped University of Colorado Boulder researchers solve a mathematical problem that had challenged their lab for a year and a half, though it made subtle errors along the way. The breakthrough could improve how scientists study nanoparticles—tiny particles about 1,000 times thinner than a human hair—but it reveals both the promise and limitations of AI as a scientific research partner. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-fast-error-prone-ai-decades.html Soft Matter Thu, 27 Aug 2026 16:40:05 EDT news707063041 When engineers look to nature for inspiration, they often turn to living systems. The flight of birds has influenced aircraft design, gecko feet inspired new adhesives and lotus leaves led to the development of self-cleaning surfaces. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-geomimicry-framework-sustainable-materials.html General Physics Thu, 27 Aug 2026 08:27:53 EDT news707038047 In the physical sense, glass is not limited to familiar window glass; it forms whenever a liquid is cooled so quickly that it cannot crystallize. As a result, glass has an amorphous structure—that is, its "building blocks" are not arranged regularly as in crystals. At the same time, however, glass is as resistant to deformation as a crystalline solid. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-closer-ideal-glass-simulations-reveal.html Condensed Matter Mon, 24 Aug 2026 13:40:03 EDT news706792561 The Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology (KICT) has developed a new cubic equation of state (EOS) that provides a physical justification for a mathematical structure that the chemical and petroleum industries have relied on for more than half a century without a first-principles explanation. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-century-physics-idea-cubic-fluid.html General Physics Thu, 20 Aug 2026 21:40:04 EDT news706454413 Researchers have developed a novel model to accurately and efficiently predict the impact of "green water"—water washing onto the deck of an offshore facility during extreme wave conditions. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-newton-momentum-principles-safer-offshore.html General Physics Thu, 20 Aug 2026 13:40:05 EDT news706445641 Many materials, both living and engineered, are powered from within. Scientists have thoroughly investigated how such 'active' materials operate, but so far, mostly in circumstances where the curvature of the environment does not play a role. In research published in Physical Review Letters this week, a team of physicists proposes a framework to describe how active materials operate in the presence of curvature. The framework explains striking biological observations and may lead to geometry as a design parameter for new materials. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-surfaces-reshape-materials-localizing-vibrations.html Soft Matter Tue, 18 Aug 2026 17:30:01 EDT news706288381 Being able to measure something plays a vital role in our ability to understand many phenomena. But measuring can often affect what we are trying to measure. This is particularly the case when measuring substances that are very small, soft or fragile. In a recent study published in PRX Life, a research team led by the University of Osaka successfully used acoustic tweezers as a contactless method to investigate an important type of fragile material called biopolymer condensates. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-based-reveal-fragile-biomolecular-droplets.html Soft Matter Tue, 18 Aug 2026 16:20:01 EDT news706284410 Anyone who has had to share a room—or worse, a bed—with a loud snorer knows the effect unchecked snoring can have on sleep, sanity and emotional stability. An entire industry of products, technologies and treatments claims to cure or prevent loud snoring, with varying degrees of success. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-loud-simulation-reveals-physical-mechanism.html General Physics Tue, 18 Aug 2026 11:00:01 EDT news706203002 The strongest glasses have an Achilles' heel that causes them to fail catastrophically when pushed past their limit. They do not bend or stretch, as all damage concentrates into a single plane and the material fails in an instant. This brittleness has long capped the usefulness of high-stability amorphous solids, from bulk metallic glasses to engineered metamaterials. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-particles-stable-glasses-stronger-catastrophic.html Soft Matter Sun, 16 Aug 2026 09:00:01 EDT news705982865 Basic biology courses teach that cells contain organelles—such as the nucleus, mitochondria and Golgi apparatus—set apart by lipid membranes to get things done. Recent cell biology research has revealed another organizational principle at work in cells across all orders of biology. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-cell-biochemistry-membranes-condensate-physics.html Soft Matter Fri, 14 Aug 2026 17:20:01 EDT news705933481 From schools of fish and flocks of birds to microscopic synthetic particles, many systems in nature and the laboratory consist of individual units or agents that move by consuming energy. These systems are known as active matter because their components continuously use energy to generate motion, either individually or through interactions with their environment. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-tiny-particles-defy-action-reaction.html General Physics Sun, 09 Aug 2026 12:40:01 EDT news705316928 Physicists from Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU), the Technical University of Darmstadt, Sapienza University in Rome and the University of Camerino (both in Italy) have calculated the fundamental laws of thermodynamics for a gas composed of spinning particles. In the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), they demonstrate that the pressure of this gas is similar to that of a normal gas but at an elevated temperature. In addition, localized surface currents arise that can be used for targeted particle transport. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-thermodynamic-framework-pressure-edge-currents.html General Physics Mon, 27 Jul 2026 18:20:04 EDT news704383741 Animals and electronic devices aren't the only things with memory. Materials can retain memories of past deformations in their microscopic structure. A common example is a crease in a sheet of paper that has been folded then unfolded. Understanding this type of memory could benefit the design of materials that respond to changes in their environment in predictable ways. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-chocolate-syrup-fluid-multiple-interacting.html Condensed Matter Thu, 23 Jul 2026 17:50:02 EDT news704043002 Reliably generating controlled miniature rotations has long been a challenge: Chemical propulsion systems wear out, and methods that use electric or magnetic fields require complex setups. A team from KIT's Institute of Microstructure Technology (IMT) and the Suzhou Institute of Nano-tech and Nano-bionics (SINANO) at the Chinese Academy of Sciences has now demonstrated that flow at a water surface alone is sufficient to rotate a floating object in a fixed direction. Their research is published in the journal Science Advances. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-surface-vortices-tiny-rotors-electricity.html General Physics Wed, 22 Jul 2026 18:00:01 EDT news703947421 Logically, you would think a sleek surface has optimal aerodynamics—but recent research at Tohoku University turns this fundamental principle on its head. Applying an irregular microscale surface texture reduced the aerodynamic drag of a test model. The innovation has potential applications in the design of fuel-efficient vehicles. The study is published in the Journal of Fluid Mechanics. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-microscale-roughness-breakthrough-defies-years.html General Physics Wed, 22 Jul 2026 12:00:04 EDT news703935124 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 it makes possible. The recent article, "Tricky Tension," explores the intersection of physics and textiles and how wetting is influenced by the structure of tiny individual liquid droplets. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-physics-mathematical.html General Physics Sat, 18 Jul 2026 08:30:01 EDT news703497428 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 to address a long-standing mystery surrounding the laws of physics. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-silly-sprinklers-reverse-unravel-decades.html Soft Matter Mon, 13 Jul 2026 15:00:03 EDT news702907799 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 shape-shifting substance classified as a non-Newtonian fluid that changes states when subjected to a force. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-oobleck-droplets-reveal-ways-cornstarch.html Soft Matter Mon, 13 Jul 2026 09:00:07 EDT news703149113 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 have long studied materials with low or moderate viscosities, a simple but important question has remained largely unexplored: Is there a physically meaningful upper limit to viscosity? https://phys.org/news/2026-07-earth-deepest-upper-limit-viscosity.html General Physics Mon, 06 Jul 2026 08:20:07 EDT news702543714 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. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-scientists-molecular-evidence-liquid.html General Physics Thu, 25 Jun 2026 14:20:03 EDT news701609342