Themed collection In Celebration of Professor Michael Rubinstein on his 70th Birthday

Quantifying P. aeruginosa motion in normal and pathological native human airway mucus and mucus simulants with decoupled elastic and viscous moduli reveals that elasticity promotes fast directional bacterial transport within mucus and complex fluids.

We present a spectral method (in time) to efficiently compute truss dynamics, where a network Laplacian captures elastic coupling between joints and external forces. It enables fast and accurate evaluation of natural frequencies and impact responses.

The mechanics of complex coacervates are governed not only by electrostatic interactions but also by polymer molecular weight (M_w) and chain stiffness, yet their combined role remains insufficiently resolved for biopolyelectrolytes.

Drawing inspiration from the concept of the “primitive path” of a linear chain in melt conditions, we introduce a numerical protocol which allows us to define, with no ambiguity, the “primitive shapes” of ring polymers in two-dimensional melts.

Crosslinking DLP 3D printable elastomers using scissile mechanophores increases tear resistance, and enables suturing of the material.

An order 1/N correction to the Edwards approximation, which is conventionally used for estimating the electrostatic correlation free energy (ECF) of polyelectrolyte solutions, is needed for quantitative predictions.