We report the observation of a Plateau instability in a thin filament of solid gel with a very
small elastic modulus. A longitudinal undulation of the surface of the cylinder reduces its …

Solid surface tension can deform soft elastic materials at macroscopic length scales. At a
critical surface tension, elastocapillary instabilities in soft filaments emerge that resemble the …

Soft materials that are subjected to large deformations exhibit an extremely rich
phenomenology, with properties lying in between those of simple fluids and those of elastic …

Under the effect of surface tension, a blob of liquid adopts a spherical shape when
immersed in another fluid. We demonstrate experimentally that soft, centimeter-size elastic …

Although the study of gels undoubtedly takes its roots within the field of physicochemistry,
the interest in gels has flourished and they have progressively become an important object …

We demonstrate the instability of the free surface of a soft elastic solid facing downwards.
Experiments are carried out using a gel of constant density ρ, shear modulus μ, put in a rigid …

We develop a macroscopic static theory of gels upon swelling or volume phase transition.
After deriving the linear elasticity theory of strained systems from the general nonlinear …

A new kind of meniscus instability leading to the formation of stationary fingers with a well-
defined spacing has been observed in experiments with elastomeric films confined between …

The surfaces of thin, liquid films can be unstable due to thinning van der Waals interactions,
leading to the formation of holes in the initially uniform film. These instabilities can be greatly …

We study the viscous fingering instability and the motion of long bubbles in tubes for two
different polymer solutions. For similar non-Newtonian viscosities, the results are strikingly …