Jülich Soft Matter Days 2012 : Book of Abstracts

Soft Matter Science has emerged in recent years as an independent and interdisciplinary research field, bringing together scientists from condensed matter physics, macromolecular and physical chemistry, and cell biology. The systems investigated in this field include colloidal dispersions, polymer solutions, mixtures and melts, block copolymers, binary and ternary amphiphilic systems (microemulsions), membranes, vesicles and biological macromolecules. While many of these systems have already been investigated for a long period of time, only recently have their common features and interactions come into focus. These highly complex materials are characterized by structural units with typical length scales ranging from nanometers to micrometers. The experimental and theoretical investigations involved, as well as the understanding of the properties of these materials pose enormous challenges due to their high complexity, the large number of cooperative degrees of freedom, and the large range of relevant length, time and energy scales