Fragile Objects

Soft Matter, Hard Science, and the Thrill of Discovery

Pierre-Gilles de Gennes, Jacques Badoz (Autoren)

Buch | Softcover

189 Seiten

2011 | Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 1996
Copernicus Books (Verlag)
978-1-4612-7528-2 (ISBN)

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Over the past few decades we have learned a great deal about the behavior of such materials as liquid crystals, emulsions and colloids, polymers, and complex molecules. These materials, called "soft matter" ("matière fragile" in French), have neither the rigid structure and crystalline symmetry of a solid nor the uniformity and disorder of a fluid or a gas. They have unusual and fascinating properties: some change their viscosity at our beck and call; others form layers of two-dimensional liquids; some are polarized, their molecules all oriented in the same direction and turning in unison at our command; others make up the foams, bubbles, waxes, gums, and many other items we take for granted every day. De Gennes, one of the world's leading experts on these strange forms of matter, here addresses topics ranging from soft-matter physics - the formation of rubber, the nature and uses of gum arabic, the wetting and de-wetting of surfaces, and the mysterious properties of bubbles and foams - to the activities of science: the role of individual or team work, the relation of discovery to correction, and the interplay of conscience and knowledge. In the best tradition of science writing, this book teaches us about both our world and ourselves.

I Soft Matter.- 1 The Indian boot and Mr. Goodyear.- 2 The noodle soup.- 3 The tubeless siphon and the runaway boat.- 4 The Egyptian scribe, arabic gum, and Chinese ink.- 5 Liquid crystals and the school of fish.- 6 On the surface of things: Wetting and dewetting.- 7 Bubbles and foams.- 8 Fragile objects.- II Research.- 1 Profession: Research scientist.- 2 Discovery.- 3 A positive science.- 4 The Environment.- III Education.- 1 A pedagogy for the real world.- 2 The imperialism of mathematics.- 2 A little oxygen.- 4 New banners.- Epilog.

"...a pleasure to read ...and quite informative, at an elementary level, about a subject matter which is assuming increasing importance" - Australian & New Zealand Physicist

Übersetzer	Axel Reisinger
Zusatzinfo	XVI, 189 p.
Verlagsort	New York
Sprache	englisch
Maße	155 x 235 mm
Themenwelt	Naturwissenschaften ► Chemie ► Physikalische Chemie
	Naturwissenschaften ► Physik / Astronomie ► Atom- / Kern- / Molekularphysik
	Naturwissenschaften ► Physik / Astronomie ► Festkörperphysik
	Naturwissenschaften ► Physik / Astronomie ► Thermodynamik
ISBN-10	1-4612-7528-8 / 1461275288
ISBN-13	978-1-4612-7528-2 / 9781461275282
Zustand	Neuware