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 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 can be controlled by humans rather than by nature. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-tweezers-tiny-surfers.html Soft Matter Wed, 03 Jun 2026 17:20:02 EDT news699718101 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 discovery of a previously unknown frost propagation mechanism—a "suspended ice bridge"—offering new pathways for anti-frosting surface design. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-plane-ice-bridges-reveal-suppress.html General Physics Wed, 03 Jun 2026 15:00:05 EDT news699710881 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, for instance, in the synthesis of pharmaceuticals and the development of electronics or optical devices. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-molecular-glasses-arrhenius-paradox.html General Physics Tue, 02 Jun 2026 07:10:01 EDT news699280613 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. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-gravity-iss-reveals-particles-turbulent.html General Physics Thu, 28 May 2026 16:20:01 EDT news699202321 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 and ovarian cancer. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-coral-infertility-ovarian-cancer-decoding.html Soft Matter Wed, 27 May 2026 11:20:06 EDT news699093819 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 at scale. As described in a recent publication in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a research team led by Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists has developed a first-of-its-kind machine learning framework that models chaotic particle motions in a turbulent flow. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-driven-captures-dynamics-turbulence-scale.html General Physics Tue, 26 May 2026 17:20:03 EDT news699021918 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 capillary structure that can trigger the Leidenfrost effect, offering a practical solution for the temperature-regulated Leidenfrost effect without requiring complex surface engineering. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-surface-thermal-enables-frictionless.html General Physics Tue, 26 May 2026 17:00:04 EDT news699020582 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 to body stabilization, demonstrating that the vertical vortices resulting from the alternating left and right leg movements not only impart forward propulsion but also suppress body sway. These results provide a fluid-dynamical explanation of the functional value of the flutter kick. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-visualizing-flutter-vertical-vortices-generate.html Soft Matter Mon, 25 May 2026 13:40:02 EDT news698932622 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 sudsy splash. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-physicists-figure-formation-viscous-fingers.html Soft Matter Fri, 22 May 2026 15:40:03 EDT news698670901 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 doctoral researcher Frederik Gareis already identified as a secondary school pupil during a student research project with his supervisor. The researchers report their new findings on the history force in Physical Review Fluids. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-overlooked-history-skew-particle-motion.html Soft Matter Tue, 19 May 2026 12:40:03 EDT news698408641 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 "memory of water" or of "water clusters" as a possible explanation for homeopathy, among other things. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-entropy-ions.html General Physics Mon, 18 May 2026 18:30:01 EDT news698344201 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 Academy of Sciences (IEP SAS) in Košice, in collaboration with international partners, have demonstrated how minute changes in material composition can achieve precise control over behavior in electric and magnetic fields. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-hidden-threshold-enables-tunable-liquid.html Soft Matter Fri, 15 May 2026 15:00:04 EDT news698072581 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, all at once, it lets go and rushes out, sometimes in a steady stream, sometimes in a messy surge that threatens to flood the basket. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-tiny-big-effects-particle-interactions.html General Physics Wed, 13 May 2026 13:03:41 EDT news697896181 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 to more energy-efficient and flexible technologies for data storage and optical devices. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-liquid-crystal-demand-skyrmions-room.html Condensed Matter Wed, 13 May 2026 12:40:02 EDT news697890165 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. These suspended particles, known as colloidal particles, range in size from a few tens of nanometers to several micrometers. Controlling them is important for applications such as drug delivery, medical laboratory tests, and the synthesis of new materials. The team's study has now been published in Physical Review Letters. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-magnetic-checkerboard-microparticles-size-paths.html Condensed Matter Thu, 07 May 2026 11:20:01 EDT news697366511 Water droplets might seem simple at first. But when nearing evaporation, a desperate power struggle of competing physical forces can emerge, with explosive effects. In a Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences publication, researchers have taken a closer look at the physics of charged water droplets on frictionless surfaces, observing spontaneous jets of microdroplet emissions. Their insights may open new opportunities in nanoscale fabrication and electrospray ionization. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-explosive-evaporation-possibilities-3d-chemical.html General Physics Fri, 01 May 2026 11:40:06 EDT news696849556 A scientific discovery by researchers at Tel Aviv University's School of Chemistry offers a new perspective on a long-standing scientific mystery: how does a flowing liquid suddenly become a rigid, almost frozen material, without changing its structure? This phenomenon, known as the "glass transition," has puzzled physicists for over a hundred years. The study proposes a new experimental approach to observing this elusive process—by tracking the motion of tiny particles that serve as microscopic "sensors" within the material. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-microscopic-sensors-uncover-liquids-glassy.html Condensed Matter Wed, 29 Apr 2026 17:30:01 EDT news696696662 Researchers at Tampere University have recently demonstrated that light can be used to precisely reshape soft materials without mechanical contact. They have developed light-responsive hydrogel thin films that enable programmable surfaces with high sensitivity, rapid response, precise spatial control and reversibility. The technology opens new possibilities for tunable devices in photonics, sensing and biomedicine. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-responsive-hydrogels-enable-fast-precise.html Optics & Photonics Wed, 29 Apr 2026 17:10:06 EDT news696696481 Recent research led by the University of Trento reveals that fundamental atomic vibrations remain unchanged also in ultra-stable glasses. This discovery advances the decade-long debate on the physics of disorder and opens the way to new applications, from electronics to pharmaceuticals. The research work was carried out by the Department of Physics in collaboration with other European research institutions and published in Physical Review X. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-disordered-heart-glass.html Soft Matter Tue, 28 Apr 2026 17:00:03 EDT news696612421 Researchers have uncovered a counterintuitive phenomenon in collision dynamics: high-speed particles bounce back from wet walls much more strongly than expected. Integrating experimental observations with advanced numerical simulations revealed that increasing the impact speed induces a morphological transition in the post-collision liquid film, shifting it from a bridge to a dome shape. Further, it clarified the relevance of cavitation to such a dramatic change and to the stronger bounce. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-high-particles-higher-collisions.html General Physics Tue, 28 Apr 2026 09:40:06 EDT news696586201 Dolphins are famous for their speed and agility in the water, but what exactly allows them to swim so effectively? Scientists have been asking this question for years, hoping to learn how to optimize propulsion in fluids from these elegant creatures. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-dolphins-fast-secrets-hidden-whirlpools.html Soft Matter Mon, 27 Apr 2026 08:00:04 EDT news696495482 In the quirky quantum world, particles can be affected by forces that they never directly encounter. A classic example is the Aharonov–Bohm (AB) effect, where electrons are affected by a magnetic field, despite not passing through it. Although predicted in 1959, it took more than two decades to confirm this effect experimentally, as the specific changes to the electrons' wave properties could only be inferred indirectly, and with great difficulty. Now, physicists from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST), in collaboration with the University of Oslo and Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, have used a classical fluid analog that mimics and extends the AB effect using a simple platform: a water tank. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-simulation-famous-quantum-effect-reveals.html Soft Matter Mon, 20 Apr 2026 05:00:01 EDT news695634547 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 In his doctoral thesis, Michael Roop develops numerical methods that allow finding physically reliable approximate solutions to nonlinear differential equations used to model turbulence. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-methods-phenomenon-turbulence.html General Physics Thu, 16 Apr 2026 21:00:01 EDT news695577541 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