Soft Matter Blog

Issue 36 of Soft Matter is a very special themed issue on interfacial dynamics in foams and emulsions, published in celebration of the career of Dominique Langevin, whose work has done much to advance the understanding of these soft matter systems.

The themed issue is Guest Edited by Anniina Salonen, Wiebke Drenckhan and Emmanuelle Rio (Université Paris-Sud, France) – read their introduction to the issue in the Editorial.

On the cover

Influence of interfacial rheology on drainage from curved surfaces
M. Saad Bhamla, Caroline E. Giacomin, Caroline Balemans and Gerald G. Fuller

Review articles

Thermodynamics of adsorption of ionic surfactants at water/alkane interfaces
V. B. Fainerman, E. V. Aksenenko, N. Mucic, A. Javadi and R. Miller

Bubbles and foams in microfluidics
Axel Huerre, Vincent Miralles and Marie-Caroline Jullien

Effect of polyelectrolytes on (de)stability of liquid foam films
Heiko Fauser and Regine von Klitzing

Read the full issue here

The Soft Matter themed issue on Proteins, cells, and tissues in patterned environments is now online! Guest Editors Ulrich Schwarz (University of Heidelberg), Celeste Nelson (Princeton University) and Pascal Silberzan (Institut Curie) introduce the issue in their Editorial.

Over the last two decades, the role of spatial coordination has increasingly moved into the focus of researchers working on biological systems. Using tools from materials science, it has been revealed that the amazing capacity of biological systems to organize themselves strongly depends on the way the environment is spatially structured. For this themed issue, researchers from the biophysics, biophysical chemistry, cell biology and bioengineering communities were invited to contribute studies based on spatially controlled environments which can be used as modulators, control elements or sensors for the self-organized assembly of proteins, cells and tissue. Below are just some of the excellent papers we received:

On the cover:

Alignment of nematic and bundled semiflexible polymers in cell-sized confinement José Alvarado, Bela M. Mulder and Gijsje H. Koenderink  

Communications:

Co- and distinct existence of Tris-NTA and biotin functionalities on individual and adjacent micropatterned surfaces generated by photo-destruction Atanu Biswas, Abhijit Saha, Dhruba Ghosh, Batakrishna Jana and Surajit Ghosh  

Papers:

Three-dimensional patterning of multiple cell populations through orthogonal genetic control of cell motility Joanna L. MacKay, Anshum Sood and Sanjay Kumar  

Oscillations of Min-proteins in micropatterned environments: a three-dimensional particle-based stochastic simulation approach Max Hoffmann and Ulrich S. Schwarz  

Cellular self-organization on micro-structured surfaces Peter J. F. Röttgermann, Alicia Piera Alberola and Joachim O. Rädler 

Optimal shapes and stresses of adherent cells on patterned substrates Shiladitya Banerjee, Rastko Sknepnek and M. Cristina Marchetti  

Intracellular stresses in patterned cell assemblies Michel Moussus, Christelle der Loughian, David Fuard, Marie Courçon, Danielle Gulino-Debrac, Hélène Delanoë-Ayari and Alice Nicolas  

Hyperswarming adaptations in a bacterium improve collective motility without enhancing single cell motility Maxime Deforet, Dave van Ditmarsch, Carlos Carmona-Fontaine and Joao B. Xavier  

Find the full issue here!

Reconfigurable soft matter systems are distinguished by their remarkable ability to sense and respond to external stimuli or changes in the environment by readjusting their morphology and/or functionality. Published last week, the Soft Matter themed issue on Reconfigurable Soft Matter highlights the new advances in designing and creating such materials. Guest Editors Anna Balazs and Joanna Aizenberg introduce the issue in their Editorial.

Here is a small sample of the excellent review, communication and full articles contained within the themed issue:

• Autonomic composite hydrogels by reactive printing: materials and oscillatory response R. C. Kramb, P. R. Buskohl, C. Slone, M. L. Smith and R. A. Vaia

• Reconfigurable and actuating structures from soft materials Ren Geryak and Vladimir V. Tsukruk
• Bioinspired materials that self-shape through programmed microstructures  André R. Studart and Randall M. Erb  (Open access)

• Electro-actuated hydrogel walkers with dual responsive legs Daniel Morales, Etienne Palleau, Michael D. Dickey and Orlin D. Velev
• Microgel film dynamics modulate cell adhesion behavior  Shalini Saxena, Mark W. Spears Jr, Hiroaki Yoshida, Jeffrey C. Gaulding, Andrés J. García and L. Andrew Lyon
• Modeling polymer grafted nanoparticle networks reinforced by high-strength chains  Matthew J. Hamer, Balaji V. S. Iyer, Victor V. Yashin, Tomasz Kowalewski, Krzysztof Matyjaszewski and Anna C. Balazs
• Autonomous viscosity oscillation via metallo-supramolecular terpyridine chemistry of branched poly(ethylene glycol) driven by the Belousov–Zhabotinsky reaction Takeshi Ueki, Yumi Takasaki, Kaori Bundo, Tomonaga Ueno, Takamasa Sakai, Yuki Akagi and Ryo Yoshida

The 2013 Soft Matter Emerging Investigators themed issue has been published. This issue highlights some of the current up-and-coming researchers in soft matter science and showcases the research that is making them leading investigators in the field. Liz Dunn and Michael Rubinstein, Chair of the Editorial Board, introduce the issue in their editorial. The full issue can be found here.

The Emerging Investigators themed issue features over 60 Communications, Papers, Reviews and Highlights, including:

Reviews:
Cell confinement: putting the squeeze on the nucleus
Marie Versaevel, Maryam Riaz, Thomas Grevesse and Sylvain Gabriele

Self-assembly of nanoparticles adsorbed on fluid and elastic membranes
Anđela Šarić and Angelo Cacciuto

Emerging Areas:
The influence of shape anisotropy on the microstructure of magnetic dipolar particles
Sofia Kantorovich, Elena Pyanzina and Francesco Sciortino  

Highlights:
Electrochemical biocomputing: a new class of molecular-electronic logic devices
Yongmei Jia, Ruixue Duan, Fan Hong, Boya Wang, Nannan Liu and Fan Xia  

Papers:
Do hierarchical structures assemble best via hierarchical pathways?
Thomas K. Haxton and Stephen Whitelam

Myosin II does it all: assembly, remodeling, and disassembly of actin networks are governed by myosin II activity
Yaron Ideses, Adar Sonn-Segev, Yael Roichman and Anne Bernheim-Groswasser

Frustration and packing in curved-filament assemblies: from isometric to isomorphic bundles
Gregory M. Grason

To keep up-to-date with all the latest research, sign-up to our RSS feed or Table of contents alert.

Soft Matter and guest editors Joanna Aizenberg (Harvard University) and Anna Balazs (University of Pittsburgh) are planning to produce a themed issue on ‘Reconfigurable soft matter’.

From the guest editors:

“This issue will focus on experimental, theoretical and computer simulation studies of soft, reconfigurable materials. A distinctive feature of these systems is their ability to sense and respond to external stimuli or changes in the environment by readjusting their morphology and/or functionality. Examples abound in biology since this adaptive behaviour is vital for survival. Consider, for the example, the ability of the octopus and cuttlefish to change their colour and texture in the presence of their predators, and thus camouflage their identity. In order to accomplish analogous adaptive behaviour, synthetic systems typically encompass a coupling between mechanical and chemical, electrical, optical or thermal behaviour. For instance, certain photo-responsive gels mechanically shrink or swell in the presence of light, and by exploiting this property, the gels can be driven to undergo controllable shape changes. Our goal is to highlight the new advances in designing and creating such reconfigurable materials. Advances in this area could lead to new multi-functional systems, which display one structure and function in one environment, but display another shape and function under different conditions. As a friend of ours likes to joke, an umbrella provides a prime example of this behaviour – in the absence of rain, it remains folded and could act as a walking stick; however, in the presence of rain, it becomes unfolded and keeps the user dry. We seek other remarkable examples of such useful adaptation.”

The deadline for receipt of manuscripts for this themed is 14 June 2013

Manuscripts can be submitted using the RSC’s online submissions service. Please clearly mark that the manuscript is submitted for the themed issue on ‘Reconfigurable soft matter’.

Please would you inform the editorial office by e-mail as soon as possible if you plan to submit to the issue and whether your contribution will be original research or a review-type article. We would like to have a list of authors who intend to contribute as soon as possible.

Soft Matter has recently published online a series of Editorials by Samuel A. Safran, Tom Lubensky, Richard Jones, Edit Yerushalmi & Erich Sackmann that discuss the state of soft matter education across scientific fields.

Both the authors and Soft Matter strongly feel that this is an area of great importance for the soft matter community, and would very much like to encourage you all to share your thoughts, comments and opinions on this subject. As such we have created this blog as a central place to enable open discussion of the matter.

If you would like take part in this discussion please add your comments on this blog, and come back often to see what others have to say!

The Editorials are listed below and they have also been grouped together on the ‘Themed Issues’ tab of the Soft Matter website so that you can easily find them again in the future.

1. Soft matter education – Samuel A. Safran

2. Reflections on graduate education in soft matter – Tom C. Lubensky

3. The place of soft matter in undergraduate physics courses – Richard A. L. Jones

4. The challenge of teaching soft matter at the introductory level – Edit Yerushalmi

5. Activities and future challenges of soft matter and biological physics education – Erich Sackmann

Soft Matter is planning to produce a themed issue on Directed self-assembly in 2013. Please e-mail the editorial office at softmatter-rsc@rsc.org, if you are interested in contributing an article.

The Guest Editor of the issue is Professor Eric M. Furst (University of Delaware).

The presence of random thermal processes is an important characteristic of soft materials. This intrinsic motion often drives soft matter to a thermodynamic equilibrium, and consequently, spontaneous self-assembly into a specific microstructure. Surfactant micelles, ordered block co-polymers, and colloidal crystals are just a few examples of the rich array of assemblies. In nanotechnology, self-assembly promises to enable new forms of scalable manufacture, reducing the cost of sophisticated functional nanomaterials and devices. However, to achieve this will require direction and control. The fundamental programming rules for self-assembly remain elusive—what structures with molecular or particle building blocks with different shapes and interactions form? How do we work backwards from a desired structure to direct the properties of the constituent building blocks that encode assembly? Moreover, there is no guarantee that the equilibrium state can be reached on a desired timescale, and non-equilibrium barriers to self-assembly, such as glassy arrest or gelation, may hamper the way. Moderate external directing fields have proven useful for circumventing non-equilibrium states.

The deadline for the receipt of manuscripts for this themed issue is April 2013.

Manuscripts can be submitted using the RSC’s online submissions service. Please clearly mark that the manuscript is submitted for the themed issue on ‘Directed self-assembly’.

Please would you inform the editorial office by e-mail at softmatter-rsc@rsc.org as soon as possible if you plan to submit to the issue and whether your contribution will be original research or a review-type article. We would like to have a list of authors who intend to contribute as soon as possible.