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 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 A research team from Hiroshima University, the University of Colorado, and other collaborators have demonstrated that space-time crystals—exotic structures that, under external drive, loop endlessly through both space and time—can be created using everyday liquid-crystal materials. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-scientists-classical-space-crystals-majorana.html Soft Matter Wed, 24 Jun 2026 10:07:24 EDT news701514422 When a physics student asked baristas at the Warsaw Coffee Conference what their biggest question for scientists was, the baristas said they wanted to know how to stop channeling during brewing. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-espresso-pucks-pressures.html General Physics Tue, 23 Jun 2026 11:00:08 EDT news701347039 Researchers at the University of Twente and Utrecht University have packed rigid, rod-shaped particles into soft lipid containers the size of a living cell and watched the container and its contents reshape each other. The vesicle's form determines how the rods line up; the tightly packed rods, in turn, bend the container into new shapes. This provides a minimal model for how physical coupling between a soft boundary and internal filaments can help cellular structures organize from within. The paper is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-minimal-cell.html Soft Matter Mon, 22 Jun 2026 17:00:08 EDT news701357761 Superfluids are intriguing states of matter in which particles behave like a giant collective wave, allowing them to flow without any friction. When this fluid flows past a fixed obstacle at a velocity below a specific threshold, it moves around it without slowing down or exerting any drag. Above this critical velocity, however, the superfluid state starts to break down, and the energy from the flow dissipates in the form of ripples and vortices in the fluid. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-tiny-superfluid.html Soft Matter Fri, 19 Jun 2026 13:20:01 EDT news701088049 Ultrasound-based irradiation of rock formations has attracted considerable attention as a technique for enhancing heavy-oil (high-viscosity crude oil) recovery from deep underground reservoirs. However, a unified theoretical framework for wave propagation and energy dissipation in these formations remains lacking because water coexists with heavy oil within rock pores, and gas bubbles in the water respond dynamically to ultrasonic excitation, thereby creating a complex system. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-ultrasound-propagation-porous-theory-distinct.html Soft Matter Thu, 18 Jun 2026 14:40:05 EDT news701010438 Flocking birds and schools of fish are a familiar sight. While previous research has uncovered the broad dynamics driving these movements, their underlying intricacies remain a mystery. Now a study by a team of New York University mathematicians offers new insights into these phenomena. It reveals that flocks and schools behave in ways similar to a soft crystalline material, with individual birds and fish serving as "atoms" that are evenly spaced in a lattice-like formation. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-flocking-birds-schools-fish-crystal.html Soft Matter Thu, 18 Jun 2026 11:00:07 EDT news700932527 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 experiences; that is, the way they respond to a force can depend on how they have responded to external forces before. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-random-deformation-glassy-materials-precise.html Condensed Matter Tue, 16 Jun 2026 18:50:01 EDT news700846142 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 large magnetic susceptibility. However, researchers have been unable to explain this phenomenon using conventional theories. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-intermolecular-collisions-radical-fluids-unusually.html Condensed Matter Tue, 16 Jun 2026 16:20:06 EDT news700830361 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 University of Amsterdam (UvA) researchers has demonstrated that activity can fundamentally alter one of the most important phase transitions in soft matter physics. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-motion.html Soft Matter Sat, 13 Jun 2026 15:00:02 EDT news700326148 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 the O K-edge XAS spectrum of bulk H2O from a liquid H2O layer on a thin Au film using the transmission method, and they used the electron-yield method to obtain the XAS spectrum of the H2O/Au interface by measuring the drain currents from the Au surface following soft X-ray absorption. This method for obtaining simultaneous XAS measurements of solid-liquid interfaces and bulk liquids can be utilized to investigate the mechanisms of a variety of catalytic, electrochemical, and biological reactions involving solid-liquid interfaces. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-ray-method-captures-solid-liquid.html General Physics Thu, 04 Jun 2026 20:40:01 EDT news699808321 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 aerosols disperse in the air is crucial for minimizing the transmission of pathogens in indoor spaces, but their dynamics are complex and depend on many factors: the force of the exhalation, the morphology of the respiratory system, the characteristics of the space, etc. Now, a new study led by researchers from the Universitat Rovira i Virgili has shown that temperature also plays an important role. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-temperature-gaps-clouds-stay-denser.html Soft Matter Wed, 03 Jun 2026 17:30:02 EDT news699722042 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