PIERRE-GILLES DE GENNES

Surfactants allow us to protect a water surface and to generate these beautiful soap bubbles, which are the delight of our children.

I have emphasized experiments more than theory. Of course, we need some theory when thinking of soft matter.

What do we mean by soft matter? Americans prefer to call it 'complex fluids.' This is a rather ugly name, which tends to discourage the young students.

Benjamin Franklin performed a beautiful experiment using surfactants: on a pond at Clapham Common, he poured a small amount of oleic acid, a natural surfactant which tends to form a dense film at the water-air interface.

The essential property of insoluble bilayers is that they optimise their area at fixed surfactant number.

Usually a fiber, after being dipped in a liquid, shows a string of droplets, and thus, for some time, people thought that most common fibers were non-wettable.

I have emphasized experiments more than theory. Of course, we need some theory when thinking of soft matter.

What do we mean by soft matter? Americans prefer to call it 'complex fluids.' This is a rather ugly name, which tends to discourage the young students.

Benjamin Franklin performed a beautiful experiment using surfactants: on a pond at Clapham Common, he poured a small amount of oleic acid, a natural surfactant which tends to form a dense film at the water-air interface.

The essential property of insoluble bilayers is that they optimise their area at fixed surfactant number.

Surfactants allow us to protect a water surface and to generate these beautiful soap bubbles, which are the delight of our children.

Usually a fiber, after being dipped in a liquid, shows a string of droplets, and thus, for some time, people thought that most common fibers were non-wettable.