#softmatter — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #softmatter, aggregated by home.social.
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What do boat wakes and biological tissues have in common? A new study shows that ultrasoft solids support wake patterns similar to fluids, opening new possibilities for probing soft materials through surface waves.
🔗 https://phys.org/news/2026-04-ship-soft-tissues-exploring-fluid.html
#SoftMatter #WavePhysics #Biophysics #FluidMechanics #MaterialsScience
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What do boat wakes and biological tissues have in common? A new study shows that ultrasoft solids support wake patterns similar to fluids, opening new possibilities for probing soft materials through surface waves.
🔗 https://phys.org/news/2026-04-ship-soft-tissues-exploring-fluid.html
#SoftMatter #WavePhysics #Biophysics #FluidMechanics #MaterialsScience
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Today, five years ago at 11:15 sharp, I successfully defended my PhD thesis. I’m not usually one to celebrate an anniversary. But because this one has taken me by surprise—by how much time has flown—I thought it’d be nice to mark the occassion. I've made a mostly visual summary of my thesis to celebrate:
https://kedara.eu/colloidal-systems/
#Colloids #SoftMatter #Physics #PhD #BrownianMotion #BlogPost
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Why can some fluids harden under impact?
Researchers tracked millimeter-sized cornstarch droplets hitting a surface and uncovered three distinct impact regimes, including a surprising liquid-to-solid transition during spreading.
🔗 https://phys.org/news/2026-04-droplet-impacts-reveal-physics-thickening.html
#Physics #FluidMechanics #SoftMatter #Rheology #ImpactDynamics
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Why can some fluids harden under impact?
Researchers tracked millimeter-sized cornstarch droplets hitting a surface and uncovered three distinct impact regimes, including a surprising liquid-to-solid transition during spreading.
🔗 https://phys.org/news/2026-04-droplet-impacts-reveal-physics-thickening.html
#Physics #FluidMechanics #SoftMatter #Rheology #ImpactDynamics
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Why can some fluids harden under impact?
Researchers tracked millimeter-sized cornstarch droplets hitting a surface and uncovered three distinct impact regimes, including a surprising liquid-to-solid transition during spreading.
🔗 https://phys.org/news/2026-04-droplet-impacts-reveal-physics-thickening.html
#Physics #FluidMechanics #SoftMatter #Rheology #ImpactDynamics
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Why can some fluids harden under impact?
Researchers tracked millimeter-sized cornstarch droplets hitting a surface and uncovered three distinct impact regimes, including a surprising liquid-to-solid transition during spreading.
🔗 https://phys.org/news/2026-04-droplet-impacts-reveal-physics-thickening.html
#Physics #FluidMechanics #SoftMatter #Rheology #ImpactDynamics
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Why can some fluids harden under impact?
Researchers tracked millimeter-sized cornstarch droplets hitting a surface and uncovered three distinct impact regimes, including a surprising liquid-to-solid transition during spreading.
🔗 https://phys.org/news/2026-04-droplet-impacts-reveal-physics-thickening.html
#Physics #FluidMechanics #SoftMatter #Rheology #ImpactDynamics
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A cornstarch-water droplet can behave like a liquid and a solid at the same time, depending on how it is stressed.
High-speed imaging reveals how these “oobleck” drops reshape on impact, highlighting the surprising physics of shear-thickening fluids.
🔗 https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-01109-3
#FluidDynamics #SoftMatter #Rheology #ComplexFluids #physics
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A cornstarch-water droplet can behave like a liquid and a solid at the same time, depending on how it is stressed.
High-speed imaging reveals how these “oobleck” drops reshape on impact, highlighting the surprising physics of shear-thickening fluids.
🔗 https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-01109-3
#FluidDynamics #SoftMatter #Rheology #ComplexFluids #physics
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A cornstarch-water droplet can behave like a liquid and a solid at the same time, depending on how it is stressed.
High-speed imaging reveals how these “oobleck” drops reshape on impact, highlighting the surprising physics of shear-thickening fluids.
🔗 https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-01109-3
#FluidDynamics #SoftMatter #Rheology #ComplexFluids #physics
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A cornstarch-water droplet can behave like a liquid and a solid at the same time, depending on how it is stressed.
High-speed imaging reveals how these “oobleck” drops reshape on impact, highlighting the surprising physics of shear-thickening fluids.
🔗 https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-01109-3
#FluidDynamics #SoftMatter #Rheology #ComplexFluids #physics
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A cornstarch-water droplet can behave like a liquid and a solid at the same time, depending on how it is stressed.
High-speed imaging reveals how these “oobleck” drops reshape on impact, highlighting the surprising physics of shear-thickening fluids.
🔗 https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-01109-3
#FluidDynamics #SoftMatter #Rheology #ComplexFluids #physics
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What looks like a simple bubble can become a delivery system. New materials store therapeutic gases and release them through controlled interfacial dynamics.
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What looks like a simple bubble can become a delivery system. New materials store therapeutic gases and release them through controlled interfacial dynamics.
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What looks like a simple bubble can become a delivery system. New materials store therapeutic gases and release them through controlled interfacial dynamics.
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What looks like a simple bubble can become a delivery system. New materials store therapeutic gases and release them through controlled interfacial dynamics.
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What looks like a simple bubble can become a delivery system. New materials store therapeutic gases and release them through controlled interfacial dynamics.
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Liquids are usually expected to flow continuously. But under strong extensional stress, viscosity alone can trigger sudden, fracture-like failure.
Could this help control flows in hydraulics, 3D printing, or even blood vessels?
🔗 https://phys.org/news/2026-03-liquids-fracture-solids.html
#FluidMechanics #Rheology #SoftMatter #FracturePhysics #Biofluidics
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Liquids are usually expected to flow continuously. But under strong extensional stress, viscosity alone can trigger sudden, fracture-like failure.
Could this help control flows in hydraulics, 3D printing, or even blood vessels?
🔗 https://phys.org/news/2026-03-liquids-fracture-solids.html
#FluidMechanics #Rheology #SoftMatter #FracturePhysics #Biofluidics
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Plant-based milks aren’t simple liquids. Most behave as non-Newtonian fluids, flowing more easily under stress due to tiny amounts of added gums.
A reminder that everyday fluids can hide complex physics.
#NonNewtonian #FluidDynamics #SoftMatter #EverydayPhysics #foodscience
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Plant-based milks aren’t simple liquids. Most behave as non-Newtonian fluids, flowing more easily under stress due to tiny amounts of added gums.
A reminder that everyday fluids can hide complex physics.
#NonNewtonian #FluidDynamics #SoftMatter #EverydayPhysics #foodscience
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What controls the motion of self-propelled particles at interfaces?
Experiments and simulations show how Marangoni forces drive elliptical Janus particles, with dynamics strongly shaped by size and eccentricity.
🔗 https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2026/sm/d5sm01270h
#marangoni #ActiveMatter #softmatter #fluiddynamics #janusparticles
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What controls the motion of self-propelled particles at interfaces?
Experiments and simulations show how Marangoni forces drive elliptical Janus particles, with dynamics strongly shaped by size and eccentricity.
🔗 https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2026/sm/d5sm01270h
#marangoni #ActiveMatter #softmatter #fluiddynamics #janusparticles
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Scientists are creating “animate” droplets that can act, adapt, and respond on their own, blurring the line between living and non-living matter.
Could this inspire new ways to control liquids?
#softmatter #ActiveMatter #dropletphysics #AutonomousSystems #fluiddynamics
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UvA physicists 3D-printed #SoftMatter in zero gravity aboard MAPHEUS-16. COLORS experiment revealed how internal stresses form in droplets—key for stronger 3D-printed materials and #bioprinting, both in space and on Earth.
https://phys.org/news/2026-02-rocket-science-3d-soft-gravity.html
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Day 3 #LeidenForce Winter School morning:
Maria Fernandino (NTNU) on modeling approaches for evaporation & the Navier–Stokes–Korteweg framework.
Jacco Snoeijer @utwente on lubrication, Landau–Levich theory & #Leidenfrost physics.
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Get to know Stefan Guldin, our newly appointed Professor of Complex #SoftMatter and Scientific Co-Director of the Proteins4Singapore project, in the latest NewIn episode. His research is located at the point where #materialsscience and #lifesciences meet: https://go.tum.de/200698
📷A. Heddergott
▶ https://youtu.be/u0EEvasWNl8
🎥 ProLehre
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Rolling Down Soft Surfaces
Place a rigid ball on a hard vertical surface, and it will free fall. Stick a liquid drop there, and it will slide down. But researchers discovered that with a soft sphere and a soft surface, it’s possible to roll down a vertical wall. The effect requires just the right level of squishiness for both the wall and sphere, but when conditions are right, the 1-millimeter radius sphere rolls (with a little slipping) down the wall.
Rolling requires torque, something that’s usually lacking on a vertical surface. But the team found that their soft spheres got the torque needed to roll from their asymmetric contact with the surface. More of the sphere contacted above its centerline than below it. The researchers compared the way the sphere contacted the surface to a crack opening (at the back of the sphere) and a crack closing (at the front of the sphere). That asymmetry creates just enough torque to roll the sphere slowly. The team hopes their discovery opens up new possibilities for soft robots to climb and descend vertical surfaces. (Image and research credit: S. Mitra et al.; via Gizmodo)
#adhesion #fluidDynamics #physics #science #slip #softMatter #solidMechanics
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Is ranch dressing a liquid or a solid? our @ScienceDesk asked, via @TheConversationUS's Curious Kids series (also good for curious adults). Turns out it’s something called soft matter, like cookie dough, toothpaste, and snot.
https://theconversation.com/is-ranch-dressing-a-liquid-or-a-solid-a-physicist-explains-249435
#Science #Physics #SoftMatter #FoodScience #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday
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Ultra-Soft Solids Flow By Turning Inside Out
Can a solid flow? What would that even look like? Researchers explored these questions with an ultra-soft gel (think 100,000 times softer than a gummy bear) pumped through a ring-shaped annular pipe. Despite its elasticity — that tendency to return to an original shape that distinguishes solids from fluids — the gel does flow. But after a short distance, furrows form and grow along the gel’s leading edge.
Front view of an ultra-soft solid flowing through an annular pipe. The furrows forming along the face of the gel are places where the gel is essentially turning itself inside out.Since the gel alongside the pipe’s walls can’t slide due to friction, the gel flows by essentially turning itself inside out. Inner portions of the gel flow forward and then split off toward one of the walls as they reach the leading edge. This eversion builds up lots of internal stress in the gel, and furrowing — much like crumpling a sheet of paper — relieves that stress. (Image and research credit: J. Hwang et al.; via APS News)
#flowVisualization #fluidDynamics #instability #physics #pipeFlow #science #softMatter #solidMechanics #stress
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Ultra-Soft Solids Flow By Turning Inside Out
Can a solid flow? What would that even look like? Researchers explored these questions with an ultra-soft gel (think 100,000 times softer than a gummy bear) pumped through a ring-shaped annular pipe. Despite its elasticity — that tendency to return to an original shape that distinguishes solids from fluids — the gel does flow. But after a short distance, furrows form and grow along the gel’s leading edge.
Front view of an ultra-soft solid flowing through an annular pipe. The furrows forming along the face of the gel are places where the gel is essentially turning itself inside out.Since the gel alongside the pipe’s walls can’t slide due to friction, the gel flows by essentially turning itself inside out. Inner portions of the gel flow forward and then split off toward one of the walls as they reach the leading edge. This eversion builds up lots of internal stress in the gel, and furrowing — much like crumpling a sheet of paper — relieves that stress. (Image and research credit: J. Hwang et al.; via APS News)
#flowVisualization #fluidDynamics #instability #physics #pipeFlow #science #softMatter #solidMechanics #stress
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Ultra-Soft Solids Flow By Turning Inside Out
Can a solid flow? What would that even look like? Researchers explored these questions with an ultra-soft gel (think 100,000 times softer than a gummy bear) pumped through a ring-shaped annular pipe. Despite its elasticity — that tendency to return to an original shape that distinguishes solids from fluids — the gel does flow. But after a short distance, furrows form and grow along the gel’s leading edge.
Front view of an ultra-soft solid flowing through an annular pipe. The furrows forming along the face of the gel are places where the gel is essentially turning itself inside out.Since the gel alongside the pipe’s walls can’t slide due to friction, the gel flows by essentially turning itself inside out. Inner portions of the gel flow forward and then split off toward one of the walls as they reach the leading edge. This eversion builds up lots of internal stress in the gel, and furrowing — much like crumpling a sheet of paper — relieves that stress. (Image and research credit: J. Hwang et al.; via APS News)
#flowVisualization #fluidDynamics #instability #physics #pipeFlow #science #softMatter #solidMechanics #stress
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Ultra-Soft Solids Flow By Turning Inside Out
Can a solid flow? What would that even look like? Researchers explored these questions with an ultra-soft gel (think 100,000 times softer than a gummy bear) pumped through a ring-shaped annular pipe. Despite its elasticity — that tendency to return to an original shape that distinguishes solids from fluids — the gel does flow. But after a short distance, furrows form and grow along the gel’s leading edge.
Front view of an ultra-soft solid flowing through an annular pipe. The furrows forming along the face of the gel are places where the gel is essentially turning itself inside out.Since the gel alongside the pipe’s walls can’t slide due to friction, the gel flows by essentially turning itself inside out. Inner portions of the gel flow forward and then split off toward one of the walls as they reach the leading edge. This eversion builds up lots of internal stress in the gel, and furrowing — much like crumpling a sheet of paper — relieves that stress. (Image and research credit: J. Hwang et al.; via APS News)
#flowVisualization #fluidDynamics #instability #physics #pipeFlow #science #softMatter #solidMechanics #stress
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Ultra-Soft Solids Flow By Turning Inside Out
Can a solid flow? What would that even look like? Researchers explored these questions with an ultra-soft gel (think 100,000 times softer than a gummy bear) pumped through a ring-shaped annular pipe. Despite its elasticity — that tendency to return to an original shape that distinguishes solids from fluids — the gel does flow. But after a short distance, furrows form and grow along the gel’s leading edge.
Front view of an ultra-soft solid flowing through an annular pipe. The furrows forming along the face of the gel are places where the gel is essentially turning itself inside out.Since the gel alongside the pipe’s walls can’t slide due to friction, the gel flows by essentially turning itself inside out. Inner portions of the gel flow forward and then split off toward one of the walls as they reach the leading edge. This eversion builds up lots of internal stress in the gel, and furrowing — much like crumpling a sheet of paper — relieves that stress. (Image and research credit: J. Hwang et al.; via APS News)
#flowVisualization #fluidDynamics #instability #physics #pipeFlow #science #softMatter #solidMechanics #stress
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#GutenbergResearchAward 2025 for materials scientist Anna Balazs from the University of Pittsburgh / World-renowned pioneer in materials theory and soft matter science is honored with #MainzUniversity's most prestigious research award for her exceptional research contributions to the field of so-called smart materials 👉 https://press.uni-mainz.de/anna-balazs-wins-the-2025-gutenberg-research-award/ @dfg_public
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#GutenbergResearchAward 2025 für Materialwissenschaftlerin Anna Balazs / Weltweit renommierte Wegbereiterin in der Materialtheorie und der Wissenschaft der weichen Materie erhält bedeutendsten Forschungspreis der #UniMainz in Anerkennung ihrer herausragenden Beiträge zum Forschungsfeld der sogenannten intelligenten Materialien 👉 https://presse.uni-mainz.de/anna-balazs-erhaelt-gutenberg-research-award-2025/ @dfg_public
#Materialwissenschaften #WeicheMaterie #SoftMatter #IntelligenteMaterialien #Materialwissenschaft #CoM2Life
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#GutenbergResearchAward 2025 für Materialwissenschaftlerin Anna Balazs / Weltweit renommierte Wegbereiterin in der Materialtheorie und der Wissenschaft der weichen Materie erhält bedeutendsten Forschungspreis der #UniMainz in Anerkennung ihrer herausragenden Beiträge zum Forschungsfeld der sogenannten intelligenten Materialien 👉 https://presse.uni-mainz.de/anna-balazs-erhaelt-gutenberg-research-award-2025/ @dfg_public
#Materialwissenschaften #WeicheMaterie #SoftMatter #IntelligenteMaterialien #Materialwissenschaft #CoM2Life
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#GutenbergResearchAward 2025 für Materialwissenschaftlerin Anna Balazs / Weltweit renommierte Wegbereiterin in der Materialtheorie und der Wissenschaft der weichen Materie erhält bedeutendsten Forschungspreis der #UniMainz in Anerkennung ihrer herausragenden Beiträge zum Forschungsfeld der sogenannten intelligenten Materialien 👉 https://presse.uni-mainz.de/anna-balazs-erhaelt-gutenberg-research-award-2025/ @dfg_public
#Materialwissenschaften #WeicheMaterie #SoftMatter #IntelligenteMaterialien #Materialwissenschaft #CoM2Life
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#GutenbergResearchAward 2025 für Materialwissenschaftlerin Anna Balazs / Weltweit renommierte Wegbereiterin in der Materialtheorie und der Wissenschaft der weichen Materie erhält bedeutendsten Forschungspreis der #UniMainz in Anerkennung ihrer herausragenden Beiträge zum Forschungsfeld der sogenannten intelligenten Materialien 👉 https://presse.uni-mainz.de/anna-balazs-erhaelt-gutenberg-research-award-2025/ @dfg_public
#Materialwissenschaften #WeicheMaterie #SoftMatter #IntelligenteMaterialien #Materialwissenschaft #CoM2Life
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#GutenbergResearchAward 2025 für Materialwissenschaftlerin Anna Balazs / Weltweit renommierte Wegbereiterin in der Materialtheorie und der Wissenschaft der weichen Materie erhält bedeutendsten Forschungspreis der #UniMainz in Anerkennung ihrer herausragenden Beiträge zum Forschungsfeld der sogenannten intelligenten Materialien 👉 https://presse.uni-mainz.de/anna-balazs-erhaelt-gutenberg-research-award-2025/ @dfg_public
#Materialwissenschaften #WeicheMaterie #SoftMatter #IntelligenteMaterialien #Materialwissenschaft #CoM2Life
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Cooking Perfect Cacio e Pepe
In cooking, sometimes the simplest recipes are the toughest to master. Cacio e pepe — a classic three-ingredient Italian pasta — is an excellent example. Made properly, the sauce of cheese and black pepper combines with starchy water to coat the pasta in a uniform, cheesy sauce. Or, if you’re me, you wind up with a pasta sauce flecked with stringy clumps of melted cheese. Fortunately for those of us who have yet to master this one, a new research paper has us covered with tips to make the perfect cacio e pepe.
The key to that elusive silky sauce, they found, is the starch – water – cheese combination. Your water needs just the right amount of starch — they found that between 1 – 4% starch by (cheese) mass worked. If the starch concentration is too low (which can easily happen in pasta water), you’ll get the clumpy cheese mess that so frequently happens in my kitchen. Temperature is also critical; if the water is too hot when it’s added, then it can destabilize the sauce. Check out the pre-print’s Section V for the scientific, supposedly foolproof, recipe. I know I’ll be trying it! (Image credit: O. Kadaksoo; research credit: G. Bartolucci et al. pre-print; via APS News)
#cooking #emulsion #fluidDynamics #phaseSeparation #physics #rheology #science #softMatter
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ILL #SoftMatter Summer School, 1–3 July 2025 at the Institut Laue-Langevin, #Grenoble
The aim of the school is to provide an overview of the forces governing the behavior of soft matter systems and introduce the most relevant techniques to probe such interactions.
Confirmed speakers include Benoit Coasne, Milena Corredig, Wiebke Drenckhan, Samantha Micciulla, Julian Oberdisse, Sylvain Prevost, Emanuel Schneck, and Alicia Vallet.
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2nd funding period for #ResearchTrainingGroup 2516 "Control of structure formation in #SoftMatter at and through interfaces" of @uni_mainz_eng, @mpi_polymer, @TUDarmstadt & @Uni_Stuttgart / @dfg_public provides funding of € 5.2 mio. / #physics #chemistry
https://nachrichten.idw-online.de/2024/11/21/second-funding-period-for-research-training-group-2516-on-structure-formation-in-soft-matter -
2nd funding period for #ResearchTrainingGroup 2516 "Control of structure formation in #SoftMatter at and through interfaces" of @uni_mainz_eng, @mpi_polymer, @TUDarmstadt & @Uni_Stuttgart / @dfg_public provides funding of € 5.2 mio. / #physics #chemistry
https://nachrichten.idw-online.de/2024/11/21/second-funding-period-for-research-training-group-2516-on-structure-formation-in-soft-matter -
2nd funding period for #ResearchTrainingGroup 2516 "Control of structure formation in #SoftMatter at and through interfaces" of @uni_mainz_eng, @mpi_polymer, @TUDarmstadt & @Uni_Stuttgart / @dfg_public provides funding of € 5.2 mio. / #physics #chemistry
https://nachrichten.idw-online.de/2024/11/21/second-funding-period-for-research-training-group-2516-on-structure-formation-in-soft-matter -
2nd funding period for #ResearchTrainingGroup 2516 "Control of structure formation in #SoftMatter at and through interfaces" of @uni_mainz_eng, @mpi_polymer, @TUDarmstadt & @Uni_Stuttgart / @dfg_public provides funding of € 5.2 mio. / #physics #chemistry
https://nachrichten.idw-online.de/2024/11/21/second-funding-period-for-research-training-group-2516-on-structure-formation-in-soft-matter -
2nd funding period for #ResearchTrainingGroup 2516 "Control of structure formation in #SoftMatter at and through interfaces" of @uni_mainz_eng, @mpi_polymer, @TUDarmstadt & @Uni_Stuttgart / @dfg_public provides funding of € 5.2 mio. / #physics #chemistry
https://nachrichten.idw-online.de/2024/11/21/second-funding-period-for-research-training-group-2516-on-structure-formation-in-soft-matter -
Our #preprint where we derive an #activeGel #model with entropic elasticity of the #microstructure from the thermodynamic constraints on the dynamics of #myosin molecular motors is now updated!
Hopefully more readable, and with the example of a #cyst like contractile sphere.
#cytoskeleton #rheology #activeMatter #softMatter #actomyosin
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Our #preprint where we derive an #activeGel #model with entropic elasticity of the #microstructure from the thermodynamic constraints on the dynamics of #myosin molecular motors is now updated!
Hopefully more readable, and with the example of a #cyst like contractile sphere.
#cytoskeleton #rheology #activeMatter #softMatter #actomyosin