1. The science of softness

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Tom McLeish
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Community ◽  
Soft Matter ◽  
Soft Materials ◽  
Visionary Leadership ◽  
Slow Dynamics ◽  
Length Scales ◽  
New Science ◽  
Motion Structure

‘The science of softness’ provides a brief history and overview of soft matter science. The development of soft matter science was propelled by a combination of communication within the scientific community; intrinsic conceptual overlap and commonality; and visionary leadership from a small number of pioneering scientists. Chemistry proved as essential an ingredient to the new science of soft matter as ideas and techniques from physics. The characteristics of soft matter include motion; structure on intermediate length scales; slow dynamics; and universality. Microscopy is the most obvious and direct example of experimental tools applied across the gamut of soft materials.

scholarly journals Universal non-diffusive slow dynamics in aging soft matter

2002 ◽  
Vol 123 ◽  
pp. 237-251 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luca Cipelletti ◽  
Laurence Ramos ◽  
S. Manley ◽  
E. Pitard ◽  
D. A. Weitz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Soft Matter ◽  
Slow Dynamics

"Plain and Vulgarly Express'd": Margaret Cavendish and the Discourse of the New Science

2001 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 403-417 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Nate
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Scientific Community ◽  
Woman Writer ◽  
Margaret Cavendish ◽  
New Science ◽  
Plain Style ◽  
Thomas Sprat

Although Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle (1623-1673), did not belong to the scientific community which after 1660 formed itself around the Royal Society, several of the philosophical issues discussed there are reflected in her writings. Lengthy reflections on language and style which run through her philosophical worksprovide evidence that the linguistic and rhetorical debates of the early Royal Society also left their mark. The isolation which Cavendish faced as a woman writer obliged her to discuss problems of terminology and style even more intensively, thereby adhering to the rhetorical principle of perspicuity which Thomas Sprat demanded in his proposal for a scientific plain style. The influence of the New Science on Cavendish's work becomes obvious when her later writings are compared to her earlier ones where traces of a courtly and more elitist understanding of style can still be found. In this paper the development of Cavendish's stylistic attitudes is traced in several of her works, including her Utopian narrative The Blazing World (1666).

Patterning of Soft Matter across Multiple Length Scales

2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (16) ◽  
pp. 2609-2616 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pim van der Asdonk ◽  
Hans C. Hendrikse ◽  
Marcos Fernandez-Castano Romera ◽  
Dion Voerman ◽  
Britta E. I. Ramakers ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Soft Matter ◽  
Length Scales ◽  
Multiple Length Scales

DESIGNING DIELECTRIC ELASTOMERS OVER MULTIPLE LENGTH SCALES FOR 21ST CENTURY SOFT MATERIALS TECHNOLOGIES

2017 ◽  
Vol 90 (2) ◽  
pp. 207-224 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel P. Armstrong ◽  
Richard J. Spontak
Keyword(s):  
Electric Fields ◽  
Thermoplastic Elastomer ◽  
Soft Materials ◽  
Dielectric Elastomers ◽  
Length Scales ◽  
Electric Stimulus ◽  
Profound Impact ◽  
Multiple Length Scales ◽  
Electromechanical Performance ◽  
Strain Cycling

ABSTRACT Dielectric elastomers (DEs) constitute an increasingly important category of electroactive polymers. They are in a class of generally soft materials that, upon exposure to an electric stimulus, respond by changing size, shape, or both. Derived from network-forming macromolecules, DEs are lightweight, robust and scalable, and they are capable of exhibiting giant electroactuation strains, high electromechanical efficiencies, and relatively low strain-cycling hysteresis over a broad range of electric fields. Due primarily to their attractive electromechanical attributes, DEs are of growing interest in diverse biomedical, (micro)robotic, and analytical technologies. Since the seminal studies of these electroresponsive materials (initially fabricated mainly from chemically cross-linked acrylic and silicone elastomers), advances in materials design over multiple length scales have resulted in not only improved electromechanical performance but also better mechanistic understanding. We first review the fundamental operating principles of DEs developed from conventional elastomers that undergo isotropic electroactuation and then consider more recent advances at different length scales. At the macroscale, incorporation of oriented fibers within elastomeric matrices is found to have a profound impact on electroactuation by promoting an anisotropic response. At the mesoscale, physically cross-linked thermoplastic elastomer gel networks formed by midblock-swollen triblock copolymers provide a highly tunable alternative to chemically cross-linked elastomers. At the nanoscale, the chemical synthesis of binetwork and bottlebrush elastomers permits extraordinarily enhanced electromechanical performance through targeted integration of inherently prestrained macromolecular networks.

Emerging themes in soft matter: responsive and active soft materials

Soft Matter ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 703 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna C. Balazs ◽  
Julia M. Yeomans
Keyword(s):  
Soft Matter ◽  
Soft Materials ◽  
Emerging Themes

scholarly journals Interpreting signals from astrophysical transient experiments

2013 ◽  
Vol 371 (1992) ◽  
pp. 20120498 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul T. O’Brien ◽  
Stephen J. Smartt
Keyword(s):  
Gravitational Waves ◽  
Time Domain ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Scientific Community ◽  
Electromagnetic Spectrum ◽  
New Science ◽  
Transient Experiments ◽  
Efficient Communication ◽  
The Universe ◽  
High Cadence

Time-domain astronomy has come of age with astronomers now able to monitor the sky at high cadence, both across the electromagnetic spectrum and using neutrinos and gravitational waves. The advent of new observing facilities permits new science, but the ever-increasing throughput of facilities demands efficient communication of coincident detections and better subsequent coordination among the scientific community so as to turn detections into scientific discoveries. To discuss the revolution occurring in our ability to monitor the Universe and the challenges it brings, on 25–26 April 2012, a group of scientists from observational and theoretical teams studying transients met with representatives of the major international transient observing facilities at the Kavli Royal Society International Centre, UK. This immediately followed the Royal Society Discussion Meeting ‘New windows on transients across the Universe’ held in London. Here, we present a summary of the Kavli meeting at which the participants discussed the science goals common to the transient astronomy community and analysed how to better meet the challenges ahead as ever more powerful observational facilities come on stream.

scholarly journals Self-assembly in soft matter with multiple length scales

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alberto Scacchi ◽  
Sousa Javan Nikkhah ◽  
Maria Sammalkorpi ◽  
Tapio Ala-Nissila
Keyword(s):  
Self Assembly ◽  
Soft Matter ◽  
Length Scales ◽  
Multiple Length Scales

scholarly journals A dynamically reprogrammable metasurface with self-evolving shape morphing

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoyue Ni ◽  
Yun Bai ◽  
Heling Wang ◽  
Yeguang Xue ◽  
Yuxin Pan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Flexible Electronics ◽  
Soft Matter ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Control Strategies ◽  
Soft Materials ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
Shape Morphing ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Data Driven Approach ◽  
Actuation Scheme

Abstract Dynamic shape-morphing soft materials systems are ubiquitous in living organisms; they are also of rapidly increasing relevance to emerging technologies in soft machines1–4, flexible electronics5–7, and smart medicines8,9. Soft matter equipped with responsive components can switch between designed shapes or structures, but cannot support the types of dynamic morphing capabilities needed to reproduce natural, continuous processes of interest for many applications10–27. Challenges lie in the development of schemes to reprogram target shapes post fabrication, especially when complexities associated with the operating physics and disturbances from the environment can prohibit the use of deterministic theoretical models to guide inverse design and control strategies3,28–32. Here, we present a mechanical metasurface constructed from a matrix of filamentary metal traces, driven by reprogrammable, distributed Lorentz forces that follow from passage of electrical currents in the presence of a static magnetic field. The resulting system demonstrates complex, dynamic morphing capabilities with response times within 0.1 s. Implementing an in-situ stereo-imaging feedback strategy with a digitally controlled actuation scheme guided by an optimization algorithm, yields surfaces that can self-evolve into a wide range of 3-dimensional (3D) target shapes with high precision, including an ability to morph against extrinsic or intrinsic perturbations. These concepts support a data-driven approach to the design of dynamic, soft matter, with many unique characteristics.

Liquid crystal templating as an approach to spatially and temporally organise soft matter

2017 ◽  
Vol 46 (19) ◽  
pp. 5935-5949 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pim van der Asdonk ◽  
Paul H. J. Kouwer
Keyword(s):  
Liquid Crystal ◽  
Soft Matter ◽  
Length Scales ◽  
Multiple Length Scales ◽  
And Control ◽  
Liquid Crystal Templating

Liquid crystal templating: an emerging technique to organise and control soft matter at multiple length scales.

Reply to the ‘Comment on “Tensional homeostasis at different length scales” by J. Humphrey and C. Cyron, Soft Matter, 2022, 18, DOI: 10.1039/D1SM01151K’

Soft Matter ◽  
2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dimitrije Stamenović ◽  
Michael L. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Soft Matter ◽  
Focal Adhesions ◽  
Living Cells ◽  
Length Scales ◽  
Tensional Homeostasis

In this Reply to the Comment, we discuss data from the literature which show that the idea that tensional homeostasis in focal adhesions (FAs) of living cells exists over “a central range of FAs”, which is promulgated in the Comment, is not tenable.

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