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.

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

#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

#MaterialsScience #SoftMatter #SmartMaterials #CoM2Life

#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

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

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.

https://workshops.ill.fr/event/503/