Rob Style

If you want to make hydrogels with cool microstructures, check out Yanxia's latest work in @acsnano. This shows simple rules for creating swiss-cheese hydrogels, and a nice way to make superabsorbing materials. @soft_isa @ETH_Materials -> pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/ac…

If you're interested in any aspect of freezing research, come join us at 'Ice at the Microscale' in Switzerland this summer: ice2025.ethz.ch Registration is now open, with early bird discount until the end of May. #ice

If you're interested in hydrogel mechanical or osmotic properties, check out @YanxiaFENG93's new paper: doi.org/10.1016/j.jmps… Yanxia showed how you can use freezing-point osmometry to measure these properties, and that classical hydrogel theory doesn't really work very well.

Super happy to share our recent work in Advanced Materials! We’ve created microcapsule arrays that autonomously “report” stress variations at the microscale by lighting up with various fluorescences.

I'm co-organising a conference on ice physics in Switzerland next year in beautiful Ticino. Check out ice2025.ethz.ch for more details, and come join us for an amazing week!

Ever seen how elastomers fail? 🎉Thrilled to share our latest publication "Elastomers Fail from the Edge", led by Nan Xue, in @PhysRevX! Find out how "edge" cracks play a key role in understanding this fracture process @SoftLiv_Cornell @ETH_Materials @LASSP_Cornell @CornellMSE

Super happy for our latest publication on freezing, showing how freezing and drying break wet materials in the same way. Great work from Shaohua Yang and Dominic Gerber: science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…

ethz.ch/en/the-eth-zur… Come join our department!

Our paper on swimming active protein droplets is finally out! 🎊🎉 nature.com/articles/s4146… The main result is in the title: "Phase-separated droplets swim to their dissolution". Explanations below 🧵👇 @SoftLiv_Cornell @ETH_Materials @Cornell @CNRSingenierie @NatureComms

The fracture properties of elastomers depend on sample thickness because of the surprisingly three-dimensional nature of the fracture process. Read go.aps.org/43tiSgg @RobStyleSoftMat @SoftLiv_Cornell @RongLong8 @RongLong8 @CornellMSE @CornellPhysics @CUEngineering

Hate polymers? Help us destroy them with depolymerization and chemical recycling! We have two fully funded PhD positions in Polymer Chemistry at ETH! Come be our colleague! @AnastasakiLab jobs.ethz.ch/job/view/JOPG_… Please Retweet

@Minghan_Hu Thanks Minghan!

Unfrozen water channels in icy areas can make the ice grow and cause damage to brittle materials like asphalt and cement. Truly enjoying the insightful work from @RobStyleSoftMat and coworkers. Congratulation!

Dominic's latest work on freezing soft materials is out, and we're super happy to have it covered in Physics: physics.aps.org/articles/v16/1…! Check it out to see why freezing damage is more complex than you might think. @PhysRevLett @SoftLiv_Cornell

Very happy to see our new paper lead by Carla @carlacolloids out in Nature Materials! 🎉Find out all about how elastic microphase separation produces robust bicontinuous materials! @NatureMaterials @ETH_Materials @CornellMSE nature.com/articles/s4156…

Etienne's @EJambonP and Eric's preprint "Phase-Separated Droplets Swim to Their Dissolution" is out! biorxiv.org/content/10.110… This new swimming mechanism that we call "dialytaxis" could impact intracellular transport and turn protein droplets into robots. @ETH_Materials @Cornell

@DevilleSy I'm pretty sure he did..

We are so pleased to announce that Katharine Jensen of Williams College has been selected as the 2023 Adhesion Society Outstanding Early Career Scientist Award winner. Can't wait to hear her talk at our next meeting in Savannah!

@adhesion_the @SMSLaboratory Nice one Mike!

Michael Bartlett's paper "Metamaterial adhesives through reverse crack propagation" won the 2023 Adhesion Society Distinguished Paper Award sponsored by Henkel. Make sure to come to the 2024 meeting in Savannah to say congrats in person. @SMSlaboratory

@DevilleSy I was getting regular updates from my PhD student, and getting huge FOMO...