Soft Matter Blog

Soft Matter paper appears in BBC News story – Read for free until October 26th!

21 Sep 2012

A Soft Matter paper by groups from the Centre of Molecular Materials for Photonics and Electronics and the Inkjet Research Centre at the University of Camrbidge has appeared in a BBC News story. The paper describes the inkjet printing of liquid crystals on to a wet, solution-based polymer with precise control over droplet size.

Printed photonic arrays from self-organized chiral nematic liquid crystals
D. J. Gardiner, W.-K. Hsiao, S. M. Morris, P. J. W. Hands, T. D. Wilkinson, I. M. Hutchings and H. J. Coles, Soft Matter, 2012, 8, 9977.

The BBC news story can be found here.

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Interaction of nano-objects with lipid membranes themed collection

17 Sep 2012

By Sam Keltie, Executive Editor.

The Soft Matter themed collection on ‘Interaction of nano-objects with lipid membranes’ has been published. The themed collection covers a multidisciplinary topic which involves the interaction of nano-objects such as proteins, polymer chains and peptides with lipid membranes.

Find the full collection description by Guest Editor Vladimir Baulin (Universitat Rovira, Spain) and the rest of the collection here.

The themed collection contains the following Review article:

Beyond the lipid-bilayer: interaction of polymers and nanoparticles with membranes

Matthias Schulz, Adekunle Olubummo and Wolfgang H. Binder

Soft Matter, 2012,8, 4849-4864

And the front cover paper of Soft Matter Volume 8, Number 12:

Hydrophobic droplets in amphiphilic bilayers: a coarse-grained mean-field theory study

Martin J. Greenall and Carlos M. Marques

Soft Matter, 2012,8, 3308-3314

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Soft Matter Poster Prize winners at PhysCell2012

12 Sep 2012

By Sam Keltie, Executive Editor.

Congratulations to the Soft Matter Poster Prize winners at Pierre-Gilles de Gennes school Physics of Cells: From Soft to Living Matter conference.

The three joint winners were Philipp Khuc Trong (University of Cambridge, UK), Callen Hyland (Yale University, USA) and Rabea Sandman (University of Goettingen, Germany).

From left to right: Philipp Khuc Trong, Callen Hyland and Rabea Sandman

Philipp Khuc Trong

Poster title: Coupling of active motion and advection shapes intracellular cargo transport

Callen Hyland

Poster title: Substrate-dependent traction force in regenerating neurons

Rabea Sandman

Poster title: Surface structure influences blood platelet behavior

The Pierre-Gilles de Gennes school Physics of Cells: From Soft to Living Matter was held 2^nd – 4^th September in Hyeres, France.

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Hot paper: Recovery from applied strain in interpenetrating polymer network hydrogels

11 Sep 2012

By Sam Keltie, Executive Editor.

Double network hydrogels are tough synthetic gels consisting of two-interpenetrating networks. The recoverability of double network hydrogels from loading and unloading is improved in this hot paper by synthesising hydrogels using an ionically cross-linked network and a covalently cross-linked network. The authors prepare hydrogels consisting of ionically cross-linked Gellan gum (a naturally occurring anionic polysaccharide) and covalently cross-linked poly(acrylamide). The new hydrogel shows improved mechanical properties and can almost completely recover from subsequent loading-unloading cycles with respect to the second compressive cycle.

(Soft Matter, 2012, DOI: 10.1039/C2SM26745D, Advanced Article). Read for free until October 12^th.

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Soft Matter poster prize winners

06 Sep 2012

By Sam Keltie, Executive Editor.

Well done to Eric Appel (University of Camrbidge, UK), Kosai Al Khateb (University of Reading, UK) and Mellany Ramaekers (Technical University Eindhoven, Netherlands) for winning the Soft Matter poster prizes at the Polymeric and Self-Assembled Hydrogels 2012 conference held at King’s College London, UK. Read more »

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Soft Matter Poster Prize

24 Aug 2012

By Russell Johnson, Development Editor.

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.

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Hot review: Stimuli-responsive polymers on nano-curved surfaces

16 Aug 2012

By Serin Dabb, Deputy Editor.

A Hot Review from Tagliazucchi and Szleifer discussing macromolecular layers on nano-curved surfaces. Topics include the fast-growing field of polymer- and polyelectrolyte-modified nanopores and nanochannels, and the practical implications of introducing soft materials into nanofluidic devices.

Read for free for a short time:

Stimuli-responsive polymers grafted to nanopores and other nano-curved surfaces: structure, chemical equilibrium and transport
Mario Tagliazucchi and Igal Szleifer
Soft Matter, 2012, 8, DOI: 10.1039/C2SM25777G

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Micro-structure, setting and aging of cement: from soft matter physics to sustainable materials

13 Aug 2012

By Serin Dabb, Deputy Editor.

Soft Matter will be publishing a web- theme in collaboration with the the ‘Micro-structure, setting and aging of cement: from soft matter physics to sustainable materials’ conference being held this week.

From 5 to 8 % of the global human CO2 production comes from the production of cement, so research on concrete and cement plays a crucial role for sustainable development. As 60% of CO2 emissions from cement production come from the chemical dissociation of calcium carbonate, the forefront of industrial and academic research is in chemical modifications of cement. It is becoming increasingly clear that no progress is really possible without understanding how the chemical modification of cement can affect its structure, cohesion and mechanics, from the nano-scale components of the material up to the microscale. From the early stages to the onset of setting, cement is very much a soft matter with structural heterogeneity and complexity on multiple length and timescales akin to other soft glassy materials. Bringing together cement researchers with soft matter scientists and glasses physicists, the web theme aims to open a new interdisciplinary perspective on the problem.
For more information, please e-mail us: softmatter-rsc@rsc.org.

More information below

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Poster Prize winners at Boulder Summer School

12 Aug 2012

By Russell Johnson, Development Editor.

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 9^th July – 3^rd August in Colorado, USA.

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Soft Matter paper featured on Science Daily

10 Aug 2012

By Russell Johnson, Development Editor.

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

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Soft Matter Blog

Soft Matter paper appears in BBC News story – Read for free until October 26th!

Interaction of nano-objects with lipid membranes themed collection

Soft Matter Poster Prize winners at PhysCell2012

Hot paper: Recovery from applied strain in interpenetrating polymer network hydrogels

Soft Matter poster prize winners

Soft Matter Poster Prize

Hot review: Stimuli-responsive polymers on nano-curved surfaces

Micro-structure, setting and aging of cement: from soft matter physics to sustainable materials

Poster Prize winners at Boulder Summer School

Soft Matter paper featured on Science Daily

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