'Digital alchemy' to reverse-engineer new materials

In work that upends materials design, researchers have demonstrated with computer simulations that they can design a crystal and work backward to the particle shape that will self-assemble to create it.

Physicists show math behind growth of 'coffee rings'

(Phys.org)—Last year, a team of University of Pennsylvania physicists showed how to undo the "coffee-ring effect," a commonplace occurrence when drops of liquid with suspended particles dry, leaving a ring-shaped stain ...

Physicists undo the 'coffee ring effect' (w/ video)

A team of University of Pennsylvania physicists has shown how to disrupt the "coffee ring effect" — the ring-shaped stain of particles leftover after coffee drops evaporate — by changing the particle shape. The ...

Shape of coronavirus affects its transmission, study finds

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, images of the coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, have been seared in our minds. But the way we picture the virus, typically as a sphere with spikes, is not strictly accurate. Microscope images ...

Study sheds new light on materials assembly in confinement

Cramming multiple pairs of shoes into a vacation suitcase, twisting and flipping them into different arrangements to fit every pair needed, is a familiar optimization problem faced by harried travelers. This same problem ...

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