Soft Matter – emergence of a physics domain

Recently, I read a nice interview with Sid Nagel, who is a pioneer in soft condensed matter physics.

Sid Nagel has given an aura to an area of physics that was not considered fashionable even as late as the 2010s. Part of his elevation is because “Soft Matter Physics” has become so vital to understand our everyday world (including biological) that it is hard to ignore it anymore. Chemical Engineers, too, have played a major role in this elevation, and the James Frank Institute at Chicago has been an epicenter for this way of thinking.

A major shift in thinking, especially among physicists, is thanks to PW Anderson. His essay – ‘More is Different” did a great service to soft matter and complex systems by highlighting the importance of emergence (side note: the word emergence does not occur in his essay, even once !) It further got a major headway with a Nobel to de Gennes. Suddenly, condensed matter physicists had something to explore beyond electrons and their density functions. The French school had a major hand in this.

For me, soft matter physics, in a way, makes physics experiments democratic. One can still dare to do some ‘breakthrough science’ in a tiny kitchen 🙂