Rent 9789400705845 | Soft Matter : The stuff that dreams are made Of

Summary Table of Contents Author Biography

The author of this book takes you for a leasurely walk in the 'middle earth' that scientists call soft matter. He shows us how to look deeper than what we see at our own macroscopic length scale, but does not venture in the realm of molecules, atoms and fundamental particles. This fascinating exploration reveals what these materials have in common and which aspects of their behaviour make them so useful in our everyday life. From toys to trainers, the world we live in would be very different if we did not have plastic. From paint to toothpast... MORE

Overture: a special day	p. 1
A life in suspense	p. 7
A big cast of little characters	p. 10
When it pays to be superficial	p. 13
Colloidal Waterage, an award-winning firm	p. 15
Rock and roll in suspense	p. 17
Osmosis, the breath of a dispersed world	p. 24
Colloidal Lego, matter made to measure	p. 29
Softness without limit: fractal agg... MOREregates	p. 33
Concrete: united by charge	p. 37
Particles spreading waves: colloidal light and colors	p. 40
A very particular particulate ink	p. 46
Flying colloids: deceptive beauty of the aerosols	p. 49
Freedom in chains	p. 55
Long and disordered queues	p. 55
A tale of cross-links and double-crosses	p. 59
Necklaces for all tastes	p. 63
Plastics: false solids with a biddable disposition	p. 68
Snake dance	p. 74
Entropy: disorder or freedom?	p. 80
Elastic by chance	p. 82
The secret of Mr Fantastic	p. 84
Panta rei	p. 86
Nightmares for Indiana Jones	p. 93
Charged polymers: polyelectrolytes	p. 95
Double-faced Janus molecules	p. 99
Striding on water: the physics of Jesus bugs	p. 100
Surfactants, a split personality	p. 104
Soap bubbles: a paradise for kids and math nerds	p. 108
Micelles: when surfactants find peace	p. 114
As white as can be: the science of cleaning	p. 116
A large and varied family	p. 117
Questions of shape	p. 124
A mischievous break: watch the label!	p. 130
Small but mighty emulsions	p. 131
Black gold	p. 136
Nanoarchitecture	p. 139
Kepler, Bernal, and your greengrocer	p. 140
Colloidal crystals: ordered by entropy	p. 144
Glasses and gels: when hate and love yield similar results	p. 151
The world is not (just) a ball	p. 155
Sandcastles and shifting sands	p. 161
Dreamtime	p. 165
Concludo, ergo sum	p. 166
Proteins, a matter of molecular origami	p. 173
Little chemists	p. 182
Truck drivers and intelligence	p. 187
Freemen of Flatland	p. 192
Yard workers	p. 197
Body builders	p. 199
A (protein-rich) lunch break	p. 204
Artificial respiration	p. 206
The Chieftain and his Shaman	p. 208
The secret of simplicity	p. 208
Message in a bottle	p. 210
Double helices and strategies to pull them apart	p. 211
The great contortionist	p. 212
The queen bee and her workers	p. 215
From Gladstone Gander to Donald Duck	p. 216
The factory of dreams	p. 218
Inner secrets of the Chieftain	p. 220
Time dust or Stardust?	p. 222
Back to the future	p. 224
Weird word: soft matter from A to Z	p. 227
Index of common things (or almost so)	p. 227
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

Roberto Piazza trained as a physicist at the school of Vittorio Degiorgio, and is now a professor of Condensed Matter Physics at the Politecnico di Milano, Italy, Associate Editor of the European Physical Journal E and coordinator of the European Space Agency's Topical Team for "Applications of colloids in microgravity" of the European Space Agency. He has made important contributions to research on nanoparticle suspensions, polymer and surfactant solutions and biological macromolecules. He is not only a gifted physicists, but equally well versed in history and literature.

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