Bio-soft matter physics

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We are looking for Bachelor and Master students interested in the field of theoretical soft matter and bio physics. Some possible seminar topics are listed below.
For further information, please contact Matej Kanduč.

Topics for seminars

Mobirise

The origin of the hydrophobic force

For almost 80 years, researchers have attempted to understand the hydrophobic force (the unusually strong and long-ranged attraction of hydrophobic surfaces and groups in water). After many years of research into how hydrophobic interactions affect the thermodynamic properties of processes such as micelle formation (self-assembly) and protein folding, the results of direct force measurements between macroscopic surfaces began to appear in the 1980s, and were incredibly facilitated by modern computer simulations in the 2000s. In this seminar we will give an overview of the mechanisms for the hydrophobic force, which range from entropic reordering of water molecules to water evaporation between the interacting surfaces.
(Reference paper)

Mobirise

The Hydrodynamics of Vascular Plants

Plants live dangerously, but gracefully. To remain hydrated, they exploit liquid water in the thermodynamically metastable state of negative pressure, similar to a rope under tension. This tension allows them to pull water out of the soil and up to their leaves. When this liquid rope breaks, owing to cavitation, they catch the ends to keep it from unraveling and then bind it back together. In parallel, they operate a second vascular system for the circulation of metabolites though their tissues, this time with positive pressures and flow that passes from leaf to root. This seminar topic aims to describe the current state of understanding of water management in plants with an emphasis on the rich coupling of transport phenomena, thermodynamics, and active biological processes.
(Reference paper) 

Mobirise

Exotic Electrostatic Interactions between highly charged macromolecules

This seminar presents an overview of our understanding of electrostatic interactions between charged macromolecular objects in water environment. As it turns out, the famous mean-field Poisson-Boltzmann approach only represents one part of the spectrum. The other extreme case of the spectrum is the so called strong-coupling regime, which gives rise to very exotic and counterintuitive phenomena, such that objects of a same charge can attract. We will formulate the strong-coupling theory and present recent experimental evidences that suggest the evidence of the strong-coupling regime. 
(Reference paper) 

Mobirise

Foaming in stout beers

In this seminar review the differences between bubble formation in champagne and other carbonated drinks, and stout beers, which contain a mixture of dissolved  nitrogen and carbon dioxide. The presence of dissolved nitrogen in stout beers gives them a number of properties of interest to connoisseurs and physicists. These remarkable properties come at a price: stout beers do not foam spontaneously and special technology, such as the widgets used in cans, is needed to promote foaming. Nevertheless, the same mechanism, nucleation by gas pockets trapped in cellulose fibers, responsible for foaming in carbonated drinks is active in stout beers, but at an impractically slow rate. This gentle rate of bubble nucleation makes stout beers an excellent model system for the scientific investigation of the nucleation of gas bubbles. The equipment needed is very modest, putting such experiments within reach of undergraduate laboratories. Finally, we consider the suggestion that a widget could be constructed by coating the inside of a beer can with cellulose fibers.  
(Reference paper) 

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