Liquid Crystals and Biological Structures
Title | Liquid Crystals and Biological Structures PDF eBook |
Author | Glenn Brown |
Publisher | Elsevier |
Pages | 200 |
Release | 2012-12-02 |
Genre | Science |
ISBN | 0323160301 |
Liquid Crystals & Biological Structures covers analogies between biological structures and behavior of living cells to liquid crystalline structures and their behavior. It emphasizes that the physical state of the matter involved in life processes is to a great extent liquid crystalline. The first chapters discuss the physical, chemical, structural, and optical properties of liquid crystals, as well as the structure of the principal molecules associated with life systems. The core chapters cover selected cellular structures exhibiting liquid crystalline behavior to emphasize the nature of various cellular membranes, from the cell membranes to the receptors and effectors. The book also considers differentiated organelles of the cell that are specialized for photoreception, including chloroplasts for photosynthesis, the retinal photoreceptors of the eye, and the rods and cones for visual excitation. This book is suited for students and bioscientists who are interested in the potential of the liquid crystalline state in exploring a variety of biological phenomena.
Sensitive Matter
Title | Sensitive Matter PDF eBook |
Author | Michel Mitov |
Publisher | Harvard University Press |
Pages | 203 |
Release | 2012-04-19 |
Genre | Science |
ISBN | 0674065360 |
Life would not exist without sensitive, or soft, matter. All biological structures depend on it, including red blood globules, lung fluid, and membranes. So do industrial emulsions, gels, plastics, liquid crystals, and granular materials. What makes sensitive matter so fascinating is its inherent versatility. Shape-shifting at the slightest provocation, whether a change in composition or environment, it leads a fugitive existence. Physicist Michel Mitov brings drama to molecular gastronomy (as when two irreconcilable materials are mixed to achieve the miracle of mayonnaise) and offers answers to everyday questions, such as how does paint dry on canvas, why does shampoo foam better when you "repeat, " and what allows for the controlled release of drugs? Along the way we meet a futurist cook, a scientist with a runaway imagination, and a penniless inventor named Goodyear who added sulfur to latex, quite possibly by accident, and created durable rubber. As Mitov demonstrates, even religious ritual is a lesson in the surprising science of sensitive matter. Thrice yearly, the reliquary of St. Januarius is carried down cobblestone streets from the Cathedral to the Church of St. Clare in Naples. If all goes as hoped--and since 1389 it often has--the dried blood contained in the reliquary's largest vial liquefies on reaching its destination, and Neapolitansare given a reaffirming symbol of renewal.
Liquid Crystals: Fundamentals
Title | Liquid Crystals: Fundamentals PDF eBook |
Author | Shri Singh |
Publisher | World Scientific |
Pages | 549 |
Release | 2002-11-05 |
Genre | Science |
ISBN | 9814493457 |
Liquid crystals are partially ordered systems without a rigid, long-range structure. The study of these materials covers a wide area: chemical structure, physical properties and technical applications. Due to their dual nature — anisotropic physical properties of solids and rheological behavior of liquids — and easy response to externally applied electric, magnetic, optical and surface fields liquid crystals are of greatest potential for scientific and technological applications. The subject has come of age and has achieved the status of being a very exciting interdisciplinary field of scientific and industrial research.This book is an outgrowth of the enormous advances made during the last three decades in both our understanding of liquid crystals and our ability to use them in applications. It presents a systematic, self-contained and up-to-date overview of the structure and properties of liquid crystals. It will be of great value to graduates and research workers in condensed matter physics, chemical physics, biology, materials science, chemical and electrical engineering, and technology from a materials science and physics viewpoint of liquid crystals.
Water and the Cell
Title | Water and the Cell PDF eBook |
Author | Gerald H. Pollack |
Publisher | Springer Science & Business Media |
Pages | 355 |
Release | 2007-09-06 |
Genre | Science |
ISBN | 1402049277 |
This book deals with the role of water in cell function. Long recognized to be central to cell function, water’s role has not received the attention lately that it deserves. This book brings the role of water front and central. It presents the most recent work of the leading authorities on the subject, culminating in a series of sometimes astonishing observations. This volume will be of interest to a broad audience.
Bent-Shaped Liquid Crystals
Title | Bent-Shaped Liquid Crystals PDF eBook |
Author | Hideo Takezoe |
Publisher | CRC Press |
Pages | 290 |
Release | 2017-07-20 |
Genre | Science |
ISBN | 1315355418 |
Bent-Shaped Liquid Crystals: Structures and Physical Properties provides insight into the latest developments in the research on liquid crystals formed by bent-shaped mesogens. After a historical introduction, the expert authors discuss different kinds of mesophase structures formed by bent-shaped molecules. This book devotes the majority of its pages to physical properties such as polar switching, optics and non-linear optics, and behavior in restricted geometries. However, as chemistry is often highly relevant to the emergence of new phases, particularly with reflection symmetry breaking, it also involves a broad spectrum of interesting chemistry viewpoints.
Structure and Properties of Liquid Crystals
Title | Structure and Properties of Liquid Crystals PDF eBook |
Author | Lev M. Blinov |
Publisher | Springer Science & Business Media |
Pages | 448 |
Release | 2010-10-26 |
Genre | Science |
ISBN | 9048188296 |
This book by Lev M. Blinov is ideal to guide researchers from their very first encounter with liquid crystals to the level where they can perform independent experiments on liquid crystals with a thorough understanding of their behaviour also in relation to the theoretical framework. Liquid crystals can be found everywhere around us. They are used in virtually every display device, whether it is for domestic appliances of for specialized technological instruments. Their finely tunable optical properties make them suitable also for thermo-sensing and laser technologies. There are many monographs written by prominent scholars on the subject of liquid crystals. The majority of them presents the subject in great depth, sometimes focusing on a particular research aspect, and in general they require a significant level of prior knowledge. In contrast, this books aims at an audience of advanced undergraduate and graduate students in physics, chemistry and materials science. The book consists of three parts: the first part, on structure, starts from the fundamental principles underlying the structure of liquid crystals, their rich phase behaviour and the methods used to study them; the second part, on physical properties, emphasizes the influence of anisotropy on all aspects of liquid crystals behaviour; the third, focuses on electro-optics, the most important properties from the applications standpoint. This part covers only the main effects and illustrates the underlying principles in greater detail. Professor Lev M. Blinov has had a long carrier as an experimentalist. He made major contributions in the field of ferroelectric mesophases. In 1985 he received the USSR state prize for investigations of electro-optical effects in liquid crystals for spatial light modulators. In 1999 he was awarded the Frederiks medal of the Soviet Liquid Crystal Society and in 2000 he was honoured with the G. Gray silver medal of the British Liquid Crystal Society. He has held many visiting academic positions in universities and laboratories across Europe and in Japan.
Liquid Crystals in Biology and Technology
Title | Liquid Crystals in Biology and Technology PDF eBook |
Author | Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften |
Publisher | |
Pages | |
Release | 1989 |
Genre | |
ISBN |