Collagen has been evolutionarily selected as the preferred building block of extracellular structures, where it constitutes approximately 20% of the body’s protein mass. Despite the inherent and surprising thermodynamic instability of individual proteins at body temperature, collagen manages to assemble into higher-order structures that provide mechanical support to tissues. We have been...
Since the introduction of the liquid-liquid critical point (LLCP) hypothesis in 1992 to explain the anomalous properties of liquid water, numerous studies have been conducted to validate it. However, the LLCP’s occurrence at extremely supercooled temperatures and high pressures makes investigating the LLCP, and the associated liquid-liquid phase transition (LLPT) between a low-density liquid...
The mechanical behavior of oxide glasses is governed by their disordered covalent networks. Using a local mechanical probing technique, we show that regions with low local stress thresholds correlate strongly with soft spots in two-dimensional network glass samples. Despite its accuracy, this approach is computationally intensive, requiring mechanical simulations at each atomic site. To...
The biological complex fluid mucus plays a key role in the transmission of infectious diseases. In-host, mucus serves as a physical and biochemical barrier, excluding pathogens from reaching underlying susceptible cells. Externally, mucosalivary droplets transport pathogens between hosts, and transmission probability is intimately tied to the processes of aerosolization and virus stability in...
