Host: Prof. Matilda Backholm (Living, Fluid, and Soft Matter)
Title: "Gastrophysics of the kitchen: a tour of culinary fluid mechanics"
Abstract:
Lab closed? Head to the kitchen!
Particularly during the recent pandemic, the kitchen offered a rich laboratory environment where diverse flows are omnipresent and widely accessible. The surprising phenomena emerging in the kitchen inspire fundamental research, which in turn has improved gastronomy ever since. In this special research setting, we deal with high-interface materials and thin films, we mix fluids to make emulsions, we work with bubbles, highly viscous and non-Newtonian materials, we explore heat transfer in fluids, we stabilize foam structure in bread and beverages, and we produce novel food from basic ingredients.
In this talk, I will present a curated selection of kitchen phenomena in which hydrodynamics plays a crucial role and show how the surprising phenomena that arise in the kitchen are leading to new discoveries across the disciplines. I will also discuss how kitchen flows can be used as a powerful tool in physics education.
The talk will be based in part on a recent review paper: A.J.T.M. Mathijssen, M. Lisicki, V.N. Prakash, E.J.L. Mossige, Culinary fluid mechanics and other currents in food science. Rev. Mod. Phys. 95, 025004 (2023).
Prof. Maciej Lisicki is a faculty member at the Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw, where he leads the Soft Matter Physics research group.
Previously, Lisicki was a Mobility Plus Fellow & Postdoc in the group of Eric Lauga at DAMTP, University of Cambridge and at Trinity College. Prof. Lisicki completed his PhD at the Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw (Poland) with Professor Bogdan Cichocki.
We develop new experimental and analytical tools to probe the dynamics and flow in mesoscale living, fluid, and soft systems. We perform curiosity-driven research to make discoveries in soft matter physics and at the interface between physics and biology.
LIBER aims to create dynamic and soft hybrid materials with a capability to learn, adapt or response to the environment. LIBER combines eight research groups with expertise on molecular self-assembly, soft robotics, surfaces and interfaces, genetic engineering of proteins, biotechnological production of engineered biomolecules, and computational modelling.
