On a structural level, the properties featured by a majority of mechanical metamaterials can be ascribed to the finite number of soft internal degrees-of freedom allowing for low-energy deformations.

This thesis describes how to scale down concepts of macroscopic mechanical metamaterials to the thermal scale using a system of flexibly-linked colloids.

Mechanical metamaterials are carefully engineered materials whose properties are controlled by their structure, not by their composition, which allows using metamaterials to study and control physical effects in detail⁠.

We investigate the physics and design of mechanical metamaterial, intricately sculpted materials with properties set by their architecture.

Mechanical metamaterials are man-made materials which derive their unusual properties from their structure rather than their composition.

The ability to count is a property not often attributed to materials, despite the abundance of memory in materials. Regardless of how a material stores information, it is often difficult to retrieve exactly ‘what’ a material remembers.

Mechanical metamaterials have been found to display surprising features, on top of their unusual properties such as shape morphing and programmability. When the materials are a step in size larger, new rules seem to apply. This was discovered by researchers at AMOLF and the universities of Leiden and…

In the traditional theory of linear elasticity, superposition dictates that the response of a material does not depend on the sequence of the applied mechanical actuations.

Errors are everywhere, and mechanical failures are especially common: buckled grain silos and cracked support columns are, justly, seen as an issue to be avoided.

PhD defence

Researchers from FOM Institute AMOLF, Leiden University and Harvard University made a rubber beam that bends faster when subjected to less pressure. They published their work on 21 July online in Physical Review Letters.

In the first part of this thesis we study the geometry of folding patterns.

Without electronics carrying out computational tasks our daily lives would look very different. Devices such as elevators, vending machines, turnstiles, washing machines and even traffic lights use a simple form of electronic computing to switch from state to state. But, what if power supply is not…

The more complex the object, the harder it is to fold up. Space satellites often need many small motors to fold up an instrument, and people have difficulty simply folding up a roadmap. Physicists from Leiden and Amsterdam have now designed a structure that folds itself up in several steps. Publication…

Lecture, Tuesday Talk

A key step in the synthesis of oligosaccharides and glycoconjugates is the formation of the glycosidic bond.

The research groups within the biological, soft and complex systems research area study the physics of a broad range of biological and soft materials. This spans both experimental and theoretical research.

The overarching aim of this theme is to increase our understanding of the mechanisms underlying altered cognitive, affective, and social behavior in relation to mental health problems.

In this thesis, we describe the potential of cell mechanical phenotyping for immune cell characterization, diagnosis, drug testing, as well as treatment of disease.

What is the Fine Mechanical Department?

Mechanical interactions between cells and their environment play an important role in many biological processes.

Promotores: Prof.dr. F.P. Israel, Prof.dr. P.P. van der Werf

Soft structures that can take on different shapes without any external drive. Leiden physicists Daniela Kraft and Julio Melio created them in their lab. They present their groundbreaking research on microscale metamaterials in Nature - a breakthrough that opens the door to smart, reconfigurable materials…

Martin van Hecke and Lennard Kwakernaak (Leiden university and AMOLF) develop a mechanical metamterial that can count to ten in their research.

Mechanisms fro drug resistance

We study the physics of a broad range of biological and soft materials

Promotor: F.P. Israel, Co-Promoter: R. Meijerink

PhD candidate Jiangnan Ding explores how you can design a thick slab of rubber in a way that it might act as a mechanical computer bit. This so-called mechanical metamaterial is pushed in a specific way to change its shape. ‘With a very simple material, we might be able to do simple calculations in…

We are interested in understanding the mechanics of soft materials, of which biological materials are prominent examples.

The four possible segments A, T, C and G that link together to form DNA molecules, and with their ordering encode genetic information, are not only different in name, but also in their physical and chemical properties.

This work describes several studies into the electroreduction of carbon dioxide (CO2RR), both regarding mechanistical aspects and catalyst stability considerations. Mechanistic insights into carbon-carbon bond formation on a silver catalyst are described in Ch 2, were we find an acetaldehyde-like surface…

Researchers from Leiden University, the Netherlands, designed a novel metamaterial that buckles on demand. Small structural variations in the material single out regions that buckle selectively under external stress, whereas other regions remain unchanged. The research is published in this week’s Early…

The applications of studying the early development of insects range from agriculture to material science.

Promotor: T. Schmidt, Co-Promotor: B.E. Snaar-Jagalska

In what ways can a photographic practice act as a means to confront, or even undo, the various material properties of atmospheric enclosure that so clearly put our relationship with our environment under pressure? Is it possible to devise a set of critical and artistic strategies to comprehend the ways…

We explore the possibilities to combine magnetic resonance techniques with atomic force microscopy together in a single microscope: the MRI-AFM, also called Magnetic Resonance Force Microscopy (MRFM).

In this article, Madeleine O. Hosli and Wen Pan examine how intergovernmental dynamics shaped the European Stability Mechanism, using Liberal Intergovernmentalism to assess negotiation phases, the influence of major member states, and which theoretical assumptions hold or need qualification.

Scientists have developed a material that breaks one of the fundamental principles governing many physical systems. Ordinary materials transmit external forces equally, no matter where the pressure comes from. The newly developed material breaks this rule and could potentially be of interest in soft-robotics…

Press coverage for the Nature Physics-paper about topological materials by Anne Meeussen, Erdal Oğuz, Yair Shokef and Martin van Hecke

Autophagy is a fundamental degradative process, maintaining cellular homeostasis and functions in host defense against intracellular pathogens, including mycobacteria and Salmonella.

This dissertation is organised into three parts, each addressing a distinct research area related to Gibbs measures.

To make the right clinical decisions or develop effective diagnostic tests and treatments, it is important to understand the underlying mechanisms of a condition or behavior.

During the development of the (human) body from a single fertilized egg, organs and structures must form. The development and growth of biological forms is called morphogenesis.

In this dissertation, we work towards an experiment in which we aim to bring a micrometer sized magnet at the tip of a soft cantilever into a superposition.

My PhD project studies how the temporally sequential Hox gene expression is regulated during head-tail patterning of the frog embryo.

In this project we study the properties of statistical- and rule-learning mechanisms in relation to the acquisition and evolution of language. We ask to what extent these mechanisms are unique to humans - or to human language - by comparing the acquisition of vocal structure in two species: humans (infants)…

Rigid materials break more easily than floppy ones. This simple observation allows to predict and control the width of cracks. Theoretical understanding of how materials break is useful in for example the production of cars or screens. Publication in PNAS.

Metastasis is responsible for over 90% of cancer-related deaths and arises from the ability of a small subset of tumor cells to detach from the primary tumor, overcome multiple biochemical and mechanical barriers, disseminate through the body, and colonize distant organs.

A specifically designed collection of gears is soft on one end and rigid on the other. These are robust properties of the system that hold even in the presence of manufacturing imperfections. This emerging research area may lead to new ways of designing geared devices like satellite trackers or watches.…

Geometric phases lead to a nontrivial interference result when an electron's different quantum mechanical paths choices encircle a magnetic coil in an Aharonov-Bohm experiment.