Instant insight: The soft cell

Ulrich Schwarz, soft matter researcher at the University of Heidelberg in Germany, explains why softness matters for cells. At the interface between chemistry, physics and biology, a new field of research has established itself during the last three decades or so, which by its followers is simply and lovingly called soft matter. Common examples of soft matter are liquid crystals, colloidal suspensions and polymer gels. These are all governed by weak intermolecular interactions, the key property leading to softness. The systems are widely used in technology, for example for computer displays, food, cosmetics and paint, because, in every case, it is essential that the material can be processed and manipulated easily. Cells and tissues, whose mechanical properties are determined mainly by polymer networks and lipid bilayers, also fall into this category. Understanding soft matter is essential for many biomedical applications, including physiological and artificial tissue, which is a soft composite material made from cells embedded in a polymer matrix. read whole article "www.rsc.org":[ http://www.rsc.org/Publishing/Journals/cb/Volume/2007/3/soft_cell.asp]

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