Soft matter

Nikta Fakhri is adapting and extending concepts from physics to describe how tiny biological components give rise to living organisms.

While studying materials made from DNA-coated nanoparticles, researchers found a new form of this matter: lattices in which smaller particles roam like electrons in metallic bonds.

Physicists have found examples of “universality” in a system of confined bubbles. The work could help researchers understand the strange behavior of singularities.

By measuring mechanical forces inside an embryo for the first time, researchers have shown how a physical “jamming” mechanism assists development.

The physicist Lisa Manning studies the dynamics of glassy materials to understand embryonic development and disease.

The subtle mechanics of densely packed cells may help explain why some cancerous tumors stay put while others break off and spread through the body.

A collaboration between mechanical engineers and mathematicians has revealed universal rules for how wrinkles form.

Glass and other strange materials have long confounded textbook definitions of what it means to be solid. Now, two groups of physicists propose a new solution to the riddle.