Abstract
A little Arabic gum stabilizes Chinese ink for a full year. A few drops of shampoo generate a cloud of lather. Traces of oxygen in the air transform hevea sap into rubber. A tiny battery is enough to update the display of a watch. Every one of these cases epitomizes the essence of soft matter. Soft matter is exactly like the clay of the sculptor, which, through an extremely weak action, can be changed, shaped, and organized.
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© 1996 Springer-Verlag New York, Inc.
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de Gennes, PG., Badoz, J. (1996). Fragile Objects. In: Fragile Objects. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-2410-5_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-2410-5_8
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-7528-2
Online ISBN: 978-1-4612-2410-5
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