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Flowing through a world of patterns
Why is there so much structure, order and texture to life and nature, rather than a featureless expanse ? From microscopic snowflakes to dried mud and vast river networks, pattern formation gives rise to systems of extraordinary intricacy and beauty. Understanding how a system spontaneously selects its overall structure remains an ongoing scientific challenge. In this talk, I will do something everyone advises against doing ; tell a number of only questionably connected stories, centered on pattern growth in complex fluids, without much of a general storyline. My goal is to provide an overview of my students’ research and to show you the types of questions that drive our work. I will tell you about fluid instabilities and how we can structure liquid crystals with flows, about bubbles and fractures in dense suspensions, and about crack formation in drying drops of colloidal suspensions. The hope is to spark discussions and interactions with all of you !