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Nikta Fakhri looks at a test tube.
Q&A

Starfish Whisperer Develops a Physical Language of Life

By Charlie Wood
January 11, 2023
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Nikta Fakhri is adapting and extending concepts from physics to describe how tiny biological components give rise to living organisms.

A view of nanoparticles in a crystalline pattern.
Abstractions blog

Strange Metal-like Bonds Discovered in Customized Crystals

By Erika K. Carlson
September 3, 2019
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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.

Art for "Bubble Experiment Finds Universal Laws"
universality

Bubble Experiment Finds Universal Laws

By Charlie Wood
July 31, 2019
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Physicists have found examples of “universality” in a system of confined bubbles. The work could help researchers understand the strange behavior of singularities.

EMBRYO TAIL IN TRANSITION
Abstractions blog

‘Traffic Jams’ of Cells Help to Sculpt Embryos

By Jordana Cepelewicz
September 27, 2018
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By measuring mechanical forces inside an embryo for the first time, researchers have shown how a physical “jamming” mechanism assists development.

Photo of Lisa Manning
Q&A

The Physics of Glass Opens a Window Into Biology

By Jordana Cepelewicz
June 11, 2018
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The physicist Lisa Manning studies the dynamics of glassy materials to understand embryonic development and disease.

biophysics

Jammed Cells Expose the Physics of Cancer

By Gabriel Popkin
August 16, 2016
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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.

Mathematics

A Grand Theory of Wrinkles

By Sarah Lewin
April 8, 2015
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A collaboration between mechanical engineers and mathematicians has revealed universal rules for how wrinkles form.

Physics

Solid or Liquid? Physicists Redefine States of Matter

By Natalie Wolchover
April 3, 2013
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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.

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