When:
Friday, February 1, 2013
4:00 PM - 5:00 PM CT
Where: Technological Institute, L211, 2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208 map it
Audience: Faculty/Staff - Student - Public
Contact:
Leah Handel
13645
Group: Department of Physics and Astronomy
Category: Lectures & Meetings
Dr. Fred Mackintosh
VU University, Amsterdam
Elasticity on the Edge of Stability: Soft Matter Inspired by the Cell
The mechanical properties of cells are largely determined by the cytoskeleton, a network of filamentous proteins. Inspired by such networks, we describe recent theory and experiments on simplified fiber networks. We show that these exhibit a unique state of highly responsive matter near the isostatic point first studied by Maxwell. Here, such networks constitute a marginal state of matter with exceptional properties, including zero-temperature critical behavior and anomalous entropic elasticity.