Fragile Objects: Soft Matter, Hard Science, and the Thrill of Discovery

ISBN-13: 9781461275282 / Angielski / Miękka / 2011 / 189 str.

Pierre-Gilles De Gennes; Jacques Badoz; Axel Reisinger

Opis

Over the past few decades we have learned a great deal about the behavior of such materials as liquid crystals, emulsions and colloids, polymers, and complex molecules. These materials, called "soft matter" ("matiere fragile" in French), have neither the rigid structure and crystalline symmetry of a solid nor the uniformity and disorder of a fluid or a gas. They have unusual and fascinating properties: some change their viscosity at our beck and call; others form layers of two-dimensional liquids; some are polarized, their molecules all oriented in the same direction and turning in unison at our command; others make up the foams, bubbles, waxes, gums, and many other items we take for granted every day. De Gennes, one of the world's leading experts on these strange forms of matter, here addresses topics ranging from soft-matter physics - the formation of rubber, the nature and uses of gum arabic, the wetting and de-wetting of surfaces, and the mysterious properties of bubbles and foams - to the activities of science: the role of individual or team work, the relation of discovery to correction, and the interplay of conscience and knowledge. In the best tradition of science writing, this book teaches us about both our world and ourselves."

Recenzje

"...a pleasure to read ...and quite informative, at an elementary level, about a subject matter which is assuming increasing importance" - Australian & New Zealand Physicist

Spis treści

I Soft Matter.- 1 The Indian boot and Mr. Goodyear.- Small cause, large effects.- 2 The noodle soup.- Applied research and fundamental research.- Kuhn’s example: Knowing when to switch.- 3 The tubeless siphon and the runaway boat.- A construction set.- The tubeless siphon.- The runaway boat.- The limitations of theory.- Four equations of diamondlike purity.- The true birth of ideas.- 4 The Egyptian scribe, arabic gum, and Chinese ink.- Carbon black.- Impossible loves.- The additive that makes a difference.- Paint, the magic potion.- 5 Liquid crystals and the school of fish.- The three states (of matter).- Judiciously chosen molecules.- The nematic state.- The smectic state.- How to recognize a liquid crystal?.- How to issue commands to a liquid crystal?.- 6 On the surface of things: Wetting and dewetting.- On a duck feather.- The family rug.- A pearl necklace.- Cannibalistic drops.- The Benjamin Franklin spirit.- The bilayer and the red blood cell.- 7 Bubbles and foams.- Every color of the rainbow.- Water’s skin.- Surfactants decrease the surface energy.- The birth of a film.- A self-repairing bandage.- And so goes life.- A turbulent bubble.- Newton and the Babylonian sage.- Rose, she lived the way roses do.- Drowning by numbers—or one bubble, two bubbles… foam.- Foam and the edges of the universe.- 8 Fragile objects.- II Research.- 1 Profession: Research scientist.- Teamwork.- Publish or perish.- The two halves of the sky.- A promising formula: Mixed laboratories.- The high-wire dancer.- One length ahead.- A tennis game.- 2 Discovery.- Edison and Feynman.- Memories of a trip.- Half-way across the ford.- The nanonewton.- Blunders.- Know when to stop, know when to switch.- Explosions and Bengal lights.- 3 A positive science.- The duty to inform, not the power to decide.- One danger can hide another.- Physics and metaphysics.- Measure before you judge.- 4 The Environment.- Making science heard.- A cultural deficit.- Ecology and ignorance.- More conscience calls for more science.- III Education.- 1 A pedagogy for the real world.- Good teachers.- Too much ignorance.- Manual work.- The sailor’s bar.- Experimental common sense.- Ekman and the drift of ice floes.- Leonardo da Vinci, engineer.- The “Auguste Comte” prejudice.- 2 The imperialism of mathematics.- The entrance examination theorem.- A system working in a vacuum.- Lifelong rights.- The “limp” education in universities.- 2 A little oxygen.- Some pedagogical experiments.- Giving universities some “muscle”.- Travel does make one young, but in later years.- 4 New banners.- Ethics and solidarity.- “We, civilizations, now know that we are mortal”.- Epilog.