โ Scribed by Ralph Nossal
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
The rheological properties of biological gels are illustrated by reviewing measurements made on samples containing polymer networks reconstituted from cytoskeletal constituents. Although these networks are crosslinked by non-covalent interactions which may lead to transient gel behavior, the early-time (rapid) mechanical response of the gels can be characterized by the instantaneous shear modulus. A theory for the latter is described, and used to examine the relationship between the cortical f-actin content and the stiffening of activated polymorphonuclear leukocytes.
๐ SIMILAR VOLUMES
The macroscopic mechanical properties of wet ceramic green bodies and densely packed coagulated colloidal particle gels strongly depend on the local arrangement of the powder particles on length scales of a few particle diameters. Heterogeneous microstructures exhibit up to one order of magnitude hi