Category: Soft Matter

Prof. Shashank Shekhar recognized by the Biophysical Society

March 12, 2026

Emory Physics Professor Shashank Shekhar has won the 2026 Early Career Award from the Biophysical Society in the area of Mechanobiology. These awards recognize the research of members in specialized research Subgroups. The winners were honored at the Society’s 70th Annual Meeting, held in San Francisco, California from February 21-25, 2026. As part of the … More Prof. Shashank Shekhar recognized by the Biophysical Society

The Secret to Sliding Eggs Off Stainless Steel

March 10, 2026

Frying an egg in a high-quality, slip-slidey nonstick pan or a well-seasoned cast iron skillet is pretty straightforward. But when a stainless steel pan is involved, it can quickly turn into a sticky situation. Maki Yazawa from NYT Wirecutter recently investigated this problem with a hack using salt to prepare the pan and make it less sticky: https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/stainless-steel-egg-slide Handling delicate … More The Secret to Sliding Eggs Off Stainless Steel

The Electric Worm Gets the Fly

October 23, 2025

A tiny worm that leaps high into the air — up to 25 times its body length — to attach to flying insects uses static electricity to perform this astounding feat, scientists have found. The journal PNAS published the work on the nematode Steinernema carpocapsae, a parasitic roundworm, led by researchers at Emory University (Justin Burton and Ranjiangshang Ran, … More The Electric Worm Gets the Fly

AI reveals unexpected new physics in dusty plasma

August 1, 2025

Emory physicists have teamed up to use a machine-learning method to identify surprising new twists on the non-reciprocal forces governing a many-body system. The journal PNAS published the findings by experimental and theoretical physicists at Emory University, based on a neural network model and data from laboratory experiments on dusty plasma — ionized gas containing suspended dust … More AI reveals unexpected new physics in dusty plasma

With interacting spins, three’s company

August 1, 2025

In an extensive numerical study just published in Physical Review Letters, Boettcher and Emory undergrad Honor student, Ginger E. Lau, explored the properties of ground states of a spin glass with three-body interactions. The corresponding two-body problem, known as the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick model (whose solution earned Parisi the 2021 Nobel prize), is widely recognized as one … More With interacting spins, three’s company

Prof. Jennifer Rieser receives NSF CAREER Award

March 30, 2024

The NSF has awarded a CAREER grant to Prof. Rieser to use experimental and computational techniques to establish links between architecture and functionality of the complex nest structures created by red imported fire ant colonies. Specifically, this research seeks to understand how above- and below-ground nests are organized to achieve mechanical robustness and to facilitate … More Prof. Jennifer Rieser receives NSF CAREER Award

The acoustic dance of polymers near an interface

January 11, 2024

Interfaces impact the properties of glasses over surprisingly large length scales, which has important implications for developing nanoscale devices involving polymers. Emory graduate student Yannic Gagnon, together with his PhD advisor Prof. Connie Roth and Prof. Justin C. Burton, recently discovered a new mechanism for how local dynamics in glasses may be coupled over long … More The acoustic dance of polymers near an interface

Emory physicists to study airborne microbes, funded by $1.2 million Keck Award

April 11, 2023

The Keck Foundation awarded Emory physicists Minsu Kim (left) and Justin Burton $1.2 million to explore how microbes adapt to living in the Earth’s atmosphere and the broader role that these organisms may play in the planet’s ecosystem. Microbes have an incredible ability to thrive in different environments. Extensive research has shown the vital roles … More Emory physicists to study airborne microbes, funded by $1.2 million Keck Award