Douglas Holmes

In honor of Sophie Germain's birthday, take a minute to read about her contributions to elasticity: arxiv.org/abs/2303.13615

I'm very excited to announce that I will join @cee_nwu @NorthwesternU as an Assistant Professor in January!

"My students commented on how the bridge looked almost like a toy as it collapsed," says @BUCollegeofENG's @dpholmes, who discussed the #FrancisScottKeyBridge disaster with his students. He delves into their class discussion in the Q&A below ⬇️. @dougmost spr.ly/6006Z5W6M

The opening of the the Devil’s Finger fungus looks analogous to some work we did with @LiquidsLab did a while back looking at bilayer bending from swelling vs capillary adhesion.

To demonstrate the strength of this model, we use to predict the shapes of wavy leaves (sect. 7.1), the snapping of a Venus flytrap (sect. 7.2), and the voltage-induced buckling of dielectric elastomers. These predictions are made from simple experimental measures of strain.

Natural stretch and natural curvature can be measured by considering how two orthogonal beams at each point stretch and bend. These are the "natural" quantities because beams are not constrained by geometry.

We've been working for years to develop a general theory that describes how slender structures respond to non-mechanical stimuli (e.g. swelling; growth; electromagnetic fields). Today we are delighted to present our: "Stimuli-responsive shell theory" journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/10…

Reading a novel, I feel personally attacked: “Would you by any chance be familiar with certain notions concerning bifurcations in dissipative structures?” “I most certainly would not. In fact if I had to be I hope I’d kill myself.” - Denis Johnson (Already Dead)

It's not everyday your favorite science writer writes about your work... thanks for the great article, @philipcball !

@csantangelo314 @softmattrtheory @AlexanderRKlotz I only yesterday learned the trick to multiple by 9 using your fingers. (put out your hands, going from left to right go to the digit you'd like to multiply by 9. bend that finger. the # of fingers to the left of it is the 10's digit, to the right the 1's digit.)

Seems most people think graduates should be able to do some basic calculations in their head, but not far beyond that. Personally I think they should pick up more just through the course of their degrees, but that's not actually taught so it's hard to make it an expectation.

@softmattrtheory I shared the information with my group this morning - I'll keep you posted!

I am definitely intrigued about Morpho!

James F. Gilchrist and Samuel R. Wilson-Whitford highlighted the work of Arman Guerra and Douglas P. Holmes about elastogranular sheets in #MatterIssue46! @dpholmes, @BostonUniversity Read more: bit.ly/3Vgj8Lp

@mengersponge @crollab I ended up using this paper as the (rough outline) of how to model origami structures - great paper!! In class, we folded waterbomb bases (various n) and miura-ori. Then we did a few demos examining d-cones. Fun lecture!

@dpholmes @crollab doi.org/10.1103/physre…

I'd like to include a lecture in my Structural Mechanics course on origami. These are 4th year MechE's. We will fold the miura and waterbomb base in class. Origami Twitter: What core ideas/concepts in origami should students at this level be introduced to?

@zhigangsuo I wonder if we can be more creative in our mechanical reuse. I think mechanical metamaterials can play a role here. If structure and shape determine function, can we apply these ideas to materials that are difficult to recycle?

Mechanical recycling, the most popular recycling method today, separates plastics, washes them, and melts them to produce new plastics. Mechanical recycling is sensitive to contaminants such as food and additives, and can reduce polymer length and degrade properties.

This week’s Nature has an article on plastic pollution. A combination of three types of solutions: Policy Recycle New polymers @AtteKadoma @Christine_h_ahn @ZheqiChen nature.com/articles/d4158…

@crollab Any readings/papers you recommend (trying to collect some good materials)

@dpholmes Defining the flat folded state is fun geometry.