An exciting new Nature paper co-authored by Professor Ozgur Sahin and Dr. Michael S. DeLay, a former PhD student in our program, argues that water can control macroscopic properties of biological materials through the hydration force, giving rise to a distinct class of solid matter.
As Columbia News reports:
“For decades, the fields of physics and chemistry have maintained that the atoms and molecules that make up the natural world define the character of solid matter. Salt crystals get their crystalline quality from the ionic bond between sodium and chloride ions, metals like iron or copper get their strength from the metallic bonds between iron or copper atoms, and rubbers get their stretchiness from the flexible bonds within polymers that constitute the rubber. The same principle applies for materials like fungi, bacteria, and wood.
Or so the story goes.
A new paper published today in Nature upends that paradigm, and argues that the character of many biological materials is actually created by the water that permeates these materials. Water gives rise to a solid and goes on to define the properties of that solid, all the while maintaining its liquid characteristics. In their paper, the authors group these and other materials into a new class of matter that they call ‘hydration solids,’ which they say ‘acquire their structural rigidity, the defining characteristic of the solid state, from the fluid permeating their pores.’ The new understanding of biological matter can help answer questions that have dogged scientists for years.”
Professor Sahin told Columbia News, “I think this is a really special moment in science… It’s unifying something incredibly diverse and complex with a simple explanation. It’s a big surprise, an intellectual delight.”
You can find the full Columbia News piece about Professor Sahin's new paper here.
