This work, carried out by the University of Chicago MRSEC, shows how to integrate neural networks in the construction of predictive phenomenological models in cell biology, even when little knowledge of the underlying microscopic mechanisms exist.

  During the academic year, Fall09 - Spring10, Dr. Kim, the facility director ,designed, built and tested devices for a number of MRSEC and outside users.

Surface plasmons are light-energy propagating electromagnetic modes trapped at the interface between certain metals (notably gold and silver) and a dielectric. They are also of interest for optical processes enhanced by strong local electric fields.

Electrically charged polymer colloids attracted to the surface of water droplets of different shapes crystallize on their curved surfaces. ŸThe curvature frustrates perfect crystallization and defects must be added such as the familiar twelve pentagons which decorate the otherwise hexagonal faces of a soccer ball. The pentagons/disclinations strongly relax curvature.

Water soluble polymers, once reserved for commodity applications (i.e., shaving cream, emulsification processes, etc.) have emerged as valuable materials for medicine.  Combining synthetic polymers with therapeutic proteins and cancer drugs improves the “therapeutic index” of the drugs, preventing their fast elimination from the body, and improving their availability for treating the disease.  Emrick at the UMass Materials Research Science and Engineering Center found that ionic liquids

In this highlight, researchers at the University of Chicago MRSEC report the development of a polymeric, pluripotent material that can be tempered (akin to the process in metallurgy) to access a wide range of room temperature mechanical properties, from stiff and high strength to soft and extensible, from a single feedstock. The feedstock was composed of a benzalcyanoacetate-based Michael acceptor, a tetrathiol crosslinker, and a dithiol chain extender to form dynamic thia-Michael networks.

High-quality single crystals of Bi2Se3 grown via the Bridgeman technique.

The New England Workshop on the Mechanics of Materials and Structures, NEW.Mech, was  held at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA on September 25th, 2010. NEW.Mech was a one-day workshop that brought together the New England Mechanics community with an interest in exploring new directions on the Mechanics of Soft Materials and Structures and in sharing the latest advances in the field.  The workshop was modeled after the MRSEC-sponsored New England Complex Fluids Workshop.  It was very successful, with more than 200 participants,

Clathrate materials present a novel class of storage media for hydrogen. These unusual crystalline solids are comprised of a lattice of polyhedral cavities that can trap a range of different guest molecules, including hydrogen. We have successfully demonstrated that hydrogen molecules can occupy large cages of clathrate hydrates at higher pressures, covalently bonded silicon clathrate cages, and hydroquinone clathrates. Computer simulations have revealed the mechanisms of clathrate hydrate formation.