GaTech - Soft Condensed Matter Lab

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Fernbank Science Center: We collaborate with Fernbank Science Center. We have a webpage with them, where we discuss some of our scientific discoveries. In addition, we co-organize an annual photography contest aimed at middle and high school students in the context of our squishy physics outreach activities. You can read more about this here.

Squishy Physics: You are certainly familiar with the fact that most of what we eat is squishy - behaving as a solid on a plate, or as a liquid when processed in your mouth. Squishy Physics or Soft Condensed Matter investigates materials that are soft and easy to deform and that, in many cases, consist of mixtures of phases. Mayonnaise, for example, is a collection of oil droplets in egg yolk, and milk is comprised of solid-like particles inside water. The squishy physics activities are aimed at communicating science to the general public through the use of soft materials that are familiar to all of us in our every day lives.

We have so far organized six squishy physics Saturday events that brought people to Georgia Tech to listen and watch famous Chefs and Physicists discuss about food science:

6th Squishy Physics Saturday - 03/04/2017: Chef Tim Ma and Preceptor Pia Sörensen will discuse and demonstrate the science behind gelation, sous vide, and caramelization and its use in modern cuisine!You can watch the entire presentation here.

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5th Squishy Physics Saturday - 05/07/2016: Molly Birnbaum and Dan Souza from America’s Test Kitchen and professor John Couplandjoined us to talk about the science behind ice cream. You can watch the entire presentation here. You can watch the entire presentation here.

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4th Squishy Physics Saturday - 03/21/2015:Squishy physics welcomed Chef Linton Hopkins and Larissa Zhou from Modernist Cuisine talking about emulsions, proteins, and stabilizers.

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3rd Squishy Physics Saturday - 03/22/2014: Squishy physics is back with Chef Bill Yosses cooking live and Dr. Arjun Yodh talking about chocolate and crystallization. You can watch the entire presentation here. You can watch the entire presentation here.

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2nd Squishy Physics Saturday - 02/02/2013: Squishy physics returns with Chef Richard Blais cooking live and Drs. Sidney Perkowitz and Amy Rowat talking about foams and phase transitions. You can watch the entire presentation here.

1st Squishy Physics Saturday - 03/10/2012: Chef José Andrés and Drs. Michael P. Brenner and David A. Weitz give a show about food and "squishy" materials with a lot of examples and outstanding demonstrations. You can watch the entire presentation here.

Soft Condensed Matter Laboratory, School of Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology
770 State Street NW, Atlanta, GA, 30332-0430, USA
Phone: 404-385-3667 Fax: 404-894-9958
alberto.fernandez [at] physics.gatech.edu