Congratulations to Dr. Michele Griffa for winning a Soft Matter poster prize at the conference ‘Micro-structure, setting and aging of cement: from soft-matter physics to sustainable materials.’
His winning poster was titled “Nonlinear Mesoscopic Elasticity and microstructural developments in cement-based materials due to micro-damage processes”.
Dr. Michele Griffa works at the Concrete and Construction Chemistry Laboratory Empa Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology.
Congratulations to the Soft Matter Poster Prize winners at Boulder Summer School: Polymers in Soft and Biological Matter.
The three joint winners were Valeria Cassina (University of Milano – Bicocca), Fernando Vargas-Lara (Wesleyan University) and Andreas Weinberger (Institut Charles Sadron UPR22-CNRS).
From left to right: Valeria Cassina, Fernando Vargas-Lara and Andreas Weinberger
Valeria Cassina
Poster title: Magnetic tweezers measurements of the DNA nanomechanical stability at different environmental conditions of pH and ionic strength
Advisor: Francesco Mantegazza
Fernando Vargas-Lara
Poster tile: The Internal Structure of Nanoparticle Dimers Linked by DNA
Advisor: Francis W. Starr
Andreas Weinberger
Poster title: Interactions of elastin-like polypeptides with lipid membranes
Advisor: Carlos Marques
The Boulder Summer School: Polymers in Soft and Biological Matter was held 9th July – 3rd August in Colorado, USA.
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A Soft Matter paper has been highlighted on the science news website Science Daily. In the Soft Matter paper (Designing maneuverable micro-swimmers actuated by responsive gel) Alexander Alexeev and co-workers at Georgia Institute of Technology, USA, design a simple maneuverable micro-swimmer that can self-propel and navigate in microfluidic channels. The micro-swimmer is designed using computational modelling.
You can read the write up in Science Daily here:
Microswimmers: Micron-Scale Swimming Robots Could Deliver Drugs and Carry Cargo Using Simple Motion
To keep up-to-date with all the latest research, sign up for the Soft Matter e-Alert or RSS feeds or follow Soft Matter on Twitter or Facebook.
Soft Matter is delighted to offer a poster prize at the meeting “Pierre-Gille de Gennes days on Physics of cells: From soft to living matter” taking place 2nd – 9th September 2012, in Hyeres on the Mediterranean coast of France.
The aim of the meeting is to bring together eminent researchers from interdisciplinary fields working on various aspects of cell and tissue biophysics including adhesion, mechanics, mechano-sensing, morphogenesis, transport, single molecule studies among others.
An advanced school, aimed at graduate students as well as researchers at the interface of biology with physical sciences, will precede the conference. Scientific sessions will include membranes, single molecules, adhesion and mechanics, cytoskeleton, gene expression, tissues and morphogenesis, bacterial motility, intracellular traffic, and emerging tools and techniques.
More information is available on the meeting website: http://www.physcell2012.com
1. You recently published a paper re-examining the Archimedes’ principle. What motivated you to take a second look at this?
We were actually trying to understand some rather weird instability phenomena we had observed in the settling of binary colloid mixtures (see J. Phys.: Cond Matt. 24, 284109, 2012 ). Of course, to perform a numerical simulating of sedimentation, one has to give a value for the buoyant force acting on a particle. Yet, if we consider a particle of type 1 settling in a suspension of particles of type 2, this is less trivial than expected: using the standard Archimedes’ principle, what value for the density of the “displaced fluid” should we use, that of the bare solvent or that of the suspension of the host particles? Looking back at the literature, both attitudes can be found. It turns out that neither of the two is correct.
(Ref. Soft Matter, 2012, DOI 10.1039/C2SM26120K)
2. Can you explain the main points you discovered in this paper?
The crucial point is precisely the expression “displaced fluid”. When a particle in inserted in a complex fluid, or in general in a liquid displaying strong correlations, it does not “displace” just its own volume. Because of its interactions with the solvent, the particle perturbs the local density of the surrounding too. In the example of binary hard-sphere colloids, for instance, a region “depleted” of the host particles forms around particle 1, followed at larger distances, if particles 2 are sufficiently concentrated, by a region where the latter display an oscillating concentration profile. The interesting point is that a the effect of these perturbations on buoyancy can be quantitatively evaluated using a very general expression obtained by extending a simple mechanical equilibrium argument used in elementary physics courses to derive the Archimedes’ principle. This corrected form of the buoyant form, which we call “Generalize Archimedes’ Principle” (GAP), may lead to curious and counterintuitive effects that we tested experimentally.
If you haven’t spotted it yet the 2012 International Symposium on Stimuli-Responsive Materials will be held 21st – 23rd October at the Hilton Sonoma Wine Country in Santa Rosa, CA.
Chaired by Marek Urban and Brent Sumerlin, the symposium will cover the design, synthesis, characterization, and understanding of the physical, chemical, and applied principles of stimuli-responsive materials and devices.
Congratulations to Arisa Saito, Karmena Jaskiewicz, Miyako Tsuura, Tomohiro Fukushima and Amata Chaikriangkrai for winning the Soft Matter poster prizes at International Association of Colloid and Interface Scientists (IACIS 2012).
The titles of the winning posters were:
Ms. Arisa Saito (Shinshu University)
Concentration fluctuation of aqueous poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) solutions under magnetic fields
Ms. Karmena Jaskiewicz (Max Plank Institute)
Active transport of nanoparticles into polymersomes probed by photon correlation spectroscopy
Ms. Miyako Tsuura (Kyushu University)
Surface freezing of alkane-alkane, alkane-fluoroalkane, and alkanol-alkanol mixtures
Mr. Tomohiro Fukushima (Kyoto University)
Chemical Modulation of Self-Assembly Kinetics for Crystal Domain Control of Porous Coordination Copolymers
Mr. Amata Chaikriangkrai (Tokyo University of Technology）
Relationships between the Synthesis Conditions of Fe-Containing Mesoporous Silica and Its Effectiveness as a New Cosmetic Sunscreen Material
From left to right: Arisa Saito, Tomohiro Fukushima, Miyako Tsuura, Amata Chaikriangkrai & Karmena Jaskiewicz
IACIS 2012 was held 13th – 18th May in Sendai, Japan.
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Congratulations to Simon Attwood, Duckhoe Kim and Amanda Quirk for winning the Soft Matter poster prizes at 14th International Scanning Probe Microscopy Meeting.
The titles of the winning posters were: Simon Attwood (University of Waterloo)
Effect of Small Molecules on Phospholipid Membranes By Atomic Force Spectroscopy
Duckhoe Kim (Columbia University)
Rapid Single-Molecule Force Spectroscopy and Imaging of Short DNA Molecules
Amanda Quirk (University of Guelph)
Atomic Force Microscopy Study of Site-Specific Enzyme Action on Native Cellulose Fibers
From left to right: Duckhoe Kim, Simon Attwood, Amanda Quirk and John Dutcher who presented the awards.
The 14th International Scanning Probe Microscopy Meeting was held 16th – 18th June Toronto, Canada.
To keep up-to-date with all the latest research, sign up for the Soft Matter e-Alert or RSS feeds or follow Soft Matter on Twitter or Facebook.
There’s still just time to submit a poster for Lipids and Membrane Biophysics: Faraday Discussion 161 [link to http://www.rsc.org/ConferencesAndEvents/RSCConferences/FD161/index.asp] – by the deadline date 13 July.
This Faraday Discussion will consider recent developments in the study of biomembrane structure, ordering and dynamics, with particular emphasis on the roles of lipids in these phenomena. Registration is quick and simple via our online booking system, so act today [link to http://www.rsc.org/ConferencesAndEvents/RSCConferences/FD161/registration.asp].and benefit from early bird savings.
Why choose to come to a Faraday Discussion? They have a unique format – all papers are circulated in advance and all discussion contributions are recorded for publication in the abstract book after the event. You can also have your own poster space at the meeting, so submit yours now [link to http://www.rsc.org/ConferencesAndEvents/RSCConferences/FD161/cfp.asp] before the deadline of 13 July.
Come and discuss new experimental and theoretical findings and novel methodologies, as we focus on exploring the relevance of concepts from amphiphile self-assembly and soft matter physics to understanding biomembranes.
Don’t forget to keep up-to-date with all the latest research you can sign-up for the Soft Matter e-Alert or RSS feeds.
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Superhydrophobic surfaces can cause water to roll off leaving little or no liquid behind and even pick-up and remove small dirt particles resting on the surface; however, despite the progress made, there is still an opportunity fabricate these surfaces using simpler and cheaper methods, to maximise roll-off, or to introduction additional functional properties. Here we’ve brought together a selection of articles covering the preparation of superhydrophobic surfaces and coatings, their chemical and physical properties, and the origin of the superhydrophobic effect.
Review
Hydrophilic and superhydrophilic surfaces and materials
Jaroslaw Drelich , Emil Chibowski , Dennis Desheng Meng and Konrad Terpilowski
Soft Matter, 2011,7, 9804-9828
Highlight
Immersed superhydrophobic surfaces: Gas exchange, slip and drag reduction properties
Glen McHale , Michael I. Newton and Neil J. Shirtcliffe
Soft Matter, 2010,6, 714-719
Opinion
Characterization of superhydrophobic behavior: effect of vibrational energy
W. Li , Y. P. Diao , H. L. Zhang , G. C. Wang , S. Q. Lu , X. J. Dong , H. B. Dong and Q. L. Sun
Soft Matter, 2009,5, 2833-2835
Click here to see all the articles
