Ort: Seminarraum Forschung I (im Bibliotheksbau)
Link zur Online Teilnahme:
Beitreten Zoom Meeting:
https://zoom.us/j/7543392022?pwd=idcp61CSSfxbZPHaNZaNqpKakOngRH.1&omn=94073510221
Meeting-ID: 754 339 2022
Kenncode: 624841
Prof. Joseph D. Martin, Durham University:
“How Physics Got Soft”
Abstract: ‘What do we mean by soft matter?’ That was how Pierre-Gilles de Gennes began his Nobel lecture, which he titled ‘Soft Matter’, after winning the 1991 physics prize. ‘Soft matter’ was a broadly unfamiliar term in 1991, familiar mostly among a cluster of physicists, chemists, and chemical engineers in de Gennes orbit. Today, it represents one of the fastest growing areas of physics, dedicated to ‘gooey’ substances that deform and flow easily under everyday stresses—including colloids, gels, polymers, and foams, which are ubiquitous in technological and biological systems, and in the bathroom and kitchen of every modern home. The question de Gennes posed, however, remains difficult to answer. On the basis of a recent oral history project, this talk will discuss several different strategies that physicists have adopted for constituting the category of soft matter, and explore different ways in which those same physicists understand it as describing them and their work. By exploring these different strategies for understanding soft matter as a category, it will propose some larger implications for our understanding of how the global physics community has navigated the turn of the twenty-first century.