Read these Hot Articles for free until 31 August >>>
Wrinkling of materials can generate periodic nano or microstructures that are crucial for technological applications. Here, the phenomena is studied in ultra thin layers where Van der Waals interactions determine the morphologies. Findings indicate that wrinkling might not be the best way to investigate chain dynamics in these systems… Hugues Vandeparre, Simon Desbief, Roberto Lazzaroni, Cyprien Gay and Pascal Damman, Soft Matter, 2011, 7, 6878-6882, DOI: 10.1039/C1SM05411B
Holograms of colloidal spheres were recorded with holographic video microscopy and analyzed with light scattering theory. Individual spheres’ sizes and refractive indexes were measured with part-per-thousand resolution, which was used to estimate each sphere’s porosity. Characterisation of single colloidal spheres is important for applications such as medical diagnostics and photonics. Fook Chiong Cheong, Ke Xiao, David J. Pine and David G. Grier, Soft Matter, 2011, 7, 6816-6819, DOI: 10.1039/C1SM05577A
Droplet-induced budding in biological membranes is when a liquid drop on the surface of the membrane transforms from being partially wrapped to completely wrapped (see below). This cellular process is important for endocytosis (for communication between organelles) and viral replication. Here, a novel budding mechanism where the driving force is the interfacial tensions between the aqueous phases is investigated. Halim Kusumaatmaja and Reinhard Lipowsky, Soft Matter, 2011, 7, 6914-6919, DOI: 10.1039/C1SM05499F