News - SoftComp

8 June 2026

Schematic illustrating the influence of pH on the LLPS behaviour of tick salivary glycine-rich protein. Copyright: The Authors. Published in Nandy et. al, Advanced Functional Materials (2025) by Wiley-VCH GmbH. This publication is licensed under CC-BY 4.0 .

8 June 2026

New Tricks from Ticks: How pH Shapes Biomolecular Condensates

Biomolecular condensates formed by liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) of biopolymers are increasingly recognised as fundamental components in biological systems, not only for intracellular signaling and functions, but also for extracellular secretory fluids of... (Read more)

22 May 2026

A trapped air bubble deforms a draining liquid sheet, but the defect does not cross the rupture threshold. Surface tension pulls the cavity back together and the sheet heals. Image copyright: the authors, adapted figure 2(a,b) published in Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 054001 (2025), DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.134.054001.

22 May 2026

Tiny Defects, Big Consequences: Why Micron-thick Films Tear Before Molecular Forces Matter

Thin liquid films often rupture while they are still a few microns thick—far earlier than classical theory predicts. This matters, for example, in the development of spray systems, foams or coatings. The key... (Read more)

12 May 2026

A liquid drop impacting a rigid non-wetting substrate starts spreading laterally (top column), whereas an elastic sphere deforms slightly and bounces off (bottom column). A new work bridges these two limits and offers a general framework for liquid-to-elastic transitions. Image copyright: Front cover image from S. Jana et al., Soft Matter 22, 2226-2236 (2026), https://doi.org/10.1039/D5SM01078K licensed under CC BY 3.0 by the Royal Society of Chemistry.

12 May 2026

Impact with Memory: How Soft Materials Bridge Liquids and Elastics

Even a familiar phenomenon like a bounce can reveal new insights into the properties of soft matter, as a new study by researchers from, among others, the SoftComp partner Durham University, UK, demonstrates... (Read more)

17 December 2025

Fig. 1: Sketch of the polarization-density phase diagram in the temperature (T)-pressure (p) thermodynamic plane obtained from classical density functional theory. Copyright: 2024 the Authors. Published by PNAS under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND).

17 December 2025

Water’s Hidden Switch: How Ferroelectricity May Trigger Its Mysterious Phase Transitions

Water behaves in strangely unique ways—even under everyday conditions—and scientists have long sought the origins of its anomalies. A new study lead by SoftComp partner Ca’ Foscari University of Venice reveals a surprising... (Read more)