The hard physics of soft matter.

By definition, soft matter systems react sensitively upon external mechanical perturbations. This material class includes mesoscopic complex fluids such as colloids, polymers and membranes. It is a major challenge to understand the fascinating properties of soft matter from first principles, i.e., by deriving its properties from the microscopic interactions. Here, concepts borrowed from statistical physics are described, which are capable to overbridge the gap from microscopic over mesoscopic to macroscopic length scales. This is illustrated explicitly for star polymer solutions and charged colloidal suspensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]