Soft Matter, the Stuff that Dreams are Made of

Abstract

Abstract Where we discuss soft matter, the state of matter most relevant to biological systems. Even though soft materials, such as foams, emulsions (mayonnaise) and gels, result from a blend of the three basic states, liquid, gas and solid, they behave like none of the three. We discuss the molecular underpinning of this behaviour and show how its complexity stems from a chicken-egg coupling between chemistry, mechanics, electrostatics and geometry. Nothing fundamental from the perspective of theoretical physics, no Higgs bosons, no black holes, and still a lot “unfundamental” complexity absolutely crucial to biological life as we know it.