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Science 17 November 2000:
Vol. 290. no. 5495, pp. 1307 - 1308
DOI: 10.1126/science.290.5495.1307
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Perspectives

PHASE TRANSITIONS:
Y's and Ends

Philip Pincus

The mechanism by which colloidal suspensions containing particles with magnetic or electric dipole moments phase separate has long remained obscure. Pincus highlights the report by Tlusty and Safran, who have found that a mechanism derived from polymer physics is applicable to this problem because the suspended colloidal particles form polymerlike chains. A wide range of seemingly different systems, from biopolymers to inorganic ceramic networks, may ultimately be described within a general model.

The author is in the Physics and Materials Departments, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA. E-mail: fyl{at}physics.ucsb.edu

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)