How does a droplet dry when space is confined?
Experiments by B. Sobac and colleagues using interferometry and controlled humidity track the evaporation of binary liquid droplets in a 2D geometry.
Useful for studying droplet evaporation.
🔗 https://journals.aps.org/prfluids/abstract/10.1103/9zdm-drvp
#FluidDynamics #Droplets #Evaporation #SoftMatter #TransportPhenomena
fates: Europa, Lavurn, REBE, Softmatter @ Kwia - 18 Feb feat. Europa (1), REBE, Softmatter
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
What happens to soft matter when gravity disappears? To answer this, UvA physicists launched a fluid dynamics experiment on a sounding rocket. The suborbital rocket reached an altitude of 267 km before falling back to Earth, providing six minutes of weightlessness.
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.
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
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
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
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
#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
#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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