Themed collection Soft Matter Open Access Spotlight 2026

We experimentally probe whether a consistent effective temperature can characterize the nonequilibrium steady state of a passive tracer driven by a fully athermal active environment.

Mitochondrial motion in mammalian cells is affected by perturbation of cell energy, the microtubule network and cytoplasmic crowding in different ways, but prolongation of the time that mitochondria stall before longer movements is a main effect.

We investigate experimentally and theoretically the time-dependent orientation of rod-like colloids undergoing oscillatory extensional flows over a wide range of Péclet and Deborah numbers.

Spider silk exhibits an outstanding range of mechanical properties – this versatility is further enhanced by the combination of two or more silk types in mixed fibre bundles.

Combined measurements from transient grating spectroscopy and indentation are used to measure the Poisson’s ratio of diverse gels and elastomers with high degrees of precision and accuracy. All gels tested are observed to be nearly incompressible.

Representation of intramolecular chain folding, through cross-linking.

We generate double bilayer compartments on silicon carbide substrates by local temperature increase and follow encapsulation of external solution constituents.

All real and vegan mayos exhibit gel-like behavior at low strain and apparent yielding at high strains. Example plot contrasts a weak strain overshoot (WSO) of a real mayo with shear strain thinning (SST) response of a vegan mayo.

Chemical gardens grown from magnesium chloride seeds in aqueous sodium silicate solution contained in a vertical Hele-Shaw cell exhibit non-isotropic radial growth. Upward tubular growth occurs at higher silicate concentrations.

Coarse-grained simulations of an active, crosslinked chromatin polymer reveal that a radially increasing crosslink density toward the nuclear periphery, together with contractile motor activity, drives biologically relevant chromatin segregation.

Grand reaction simulations elucidate the effects of pH, monovalent salt concentration, and ionizable monomer fraction on the swelling of weak polyelectrolyte brushes consisting of polymers with random sequences of neutral and weakly basic monomers.

The structural and dynamic properties of compleximers, a novel class of polymer materials crosslinked by attenuated ionic bonds between oppositely charged polymers, are studied using molecular dynamics simulations.

In this work, we combine theories of polymer adsorption and elasticity of lipid membranes to predict bio-corona-induced adsorption and uptake of nanoplastics.

Topological defects provide a unifying language to describe how orientational order breaks down in active and living matter. They are identified for various p-atic orders.

Water-based inkjet inks typically contain 5–50 wt% co-solvents, i.e. non-volatile, polar compounds such as glycerol. These strongly affect the equilibrium moisture sorption of paper and the rate of ink absorption by cellulose fibers.

We develop a phase-field model of phase separation within a highly deformable elastic network. Simulations of our model demonstrate that non-local elastic effects can arrest thermodynamic coarsening, and drive formation of a regular patterned phase.

(a) Debonding force: F_c ∝ d^x, x = {m for PSA 6A, p for PSA 6B} (b) Debonding displacement: δ_c ∝ d^y, y = {n for PSA 6A, q for PSA 6B}, where x and y are function of fracture energy used to derive the power law.

Oil-in-water droplets exhibit interfacial instability and dissociate under conditions of surfactant partitioning and oil solubilization.

The amphiphilic block and end-group sequence distribution of SMA copolymers is important in controlling their solution structures as well as their interactions with lipids and hence nanodisc formation.

A phase-field model reveals how contractile surface instabilities drive adhesion-independent cell migration, showing that active surface dynamics enable directed movement and stimulus-specific behaviours in confined environments.

Using 3D particle tracking, we study the coupling between local flow and non-Newtonian rheology of granular suspensions near advancing contact lines. Jamming strongly affects the dynamics, whether induced by high particle concentration or by shear.

Our new multiscale model proposes a critical nuclear strain that triggers ZEB2 activation, delayed in human-derived organoids.

Ultrasound contrast agent dynamics are governed by their nonlinear resonance and by the shell and medium viscoelasticity. Here, we use nonlinear bubble dynamics to assess polyacrylamide hydrogel rheology at strain rates >10⁶ s⁻¹.

In this work, we develop an active colloidal system with controllable interactions with an artificial lipid bilayer membrane to investigate the interplay of membrane mechanics and the transport of particles during adhesion and wrapping.

Whispering gallery mode spectroscopy was used to detect interfacial phenomena and temperature change in liquid crystal droplets with high resolution. The experiments were modeled with numerical analysis and good qualitative agreement was found.

Intruder mobility in a glassy polymer matrix is studied with coarse-grained molecular dynamics. Changing penetrant size and interaction with the matrix strongly alters dynamics measured with diffusivity, relaxation time, and machine-learned softness.

Although active matter is inherently not in equilibrium, we use an inverse method to obtain effective pair potentials for systems of active Brownian particles, and discuss their meaning.

A new technique is developed to create hydrogels with non-linear concentrations of tethered molecules.

Novel Zein/Spirulina protein isolate nanocomposite particles improve the stability and functionality of zein nanoparticles, show good encapsulation and protection of lipophilic glabridin (GLA), and enable slow and steady in vitro release of GLA.

Dye-doped liquid crystal (LC) microdroplets exhibit tunable optical resonances modulated by size, shape, temperature, and external perturbations.

The molecular shape and chemical structure of liquid crystals greatly influence their flourescence properties.

A phase change liquid infused surface that enables reversible solid and liquid lubricant state for microplastic localization.

Active fluids confined in thin cuboidal chambers transition from chaotic, turbulence-like flow to shear-dominated flow when imposed stresses exceed intrinsic active stresses, revealing how stress competition governs their response to external shear.

Establishing a theoretical bridge between polymers and surfaces through the study of ribbons of variable width.