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Soft Matter in a Tight Spot

JUL 01, 1999
Lubricants are familiar and useful, yet their underlying physics is surprisingly subtle and complex.
Steve Granick

My friends thought I was crazy when I began, ten years ago, to work on friction and lubrication—words that seemed to evoke the triviality of replacing the dirty oil in one’s automobile. What could be fundamental or beautiful about friction? In this article, I try to explain why the subject still fascinates me.

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More about the authors

Steve Granick, University of Illinois, Urbana‐Champaign.

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Volume 52, Number 7

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