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 Keep reading
Tag: soft matter
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 Keep reading
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 Keep reading
“Bulging Balloons”
This planet-like balloon started out as two elastomer sheets, heat-sealed together into a spiraling tube. As the balloon was inflated, it changed from flat to a saddle-like shape. With more Keep reading
Why Creases Don’t Disappear
Flex your fingers and you’ll see your skin fold into well-defined creases. Many soft solids (including old apples) fold this way, and like your skin, the creases never fully disappear, Keep reading
Storing Memory in Bubbles
Soft systems like this bubble raft can retain memory of how they reached their current configuration. Because the bubbles are different sizes, they cannot pack into a crystalline structure, and Keep reading