Modeling Soft Matter.

Soft matter science or soft materials science is a relatively new term for the science of a huge class of rather different materials such as colloids, polymers (of synthetic or biological origin), membranes, complex molecular assemblies, complex fluids, etc. and combinations thereof. While many of these systems are contained in or are even the essential part of everyday products ("simple" plastics such as yoghurt cups, plastic bags, CDs, many car parts; gels and networks such as rubber, many low fat foods, "gummi" bears; colloidal systems such as milk, mayonnaise, paints, almost all cosmetics or body care products, the border lines between the different applications and systems are of course not sharp) or as biological molecules or assemblies (DNA, proteins, membranes and cytoskeleton, etc.) are central to our existence, others are basic ingredients of current and future high tech products (polymers with specific optical or electronic properties, conducting macromolecules, functional materials). Though the motivation is different in life science rather than in materials science biomolecular simulations, the basic structure of the problems faced in the two fields is very similar. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]