Memories in Disordered Soft Matter

While we are all familiar with information preserved on hard disks, DVDs, or paper, a vast array of the materials around us can store and recall memories—sometimes in surprising ways. From my lab's research, I will show a few ways that soft solids and suspensions of particles can form detailed memories when they are deformed. Examining a system's capacity to remember multiple things at once, and even to perform simple computations with them, reveals surprising connections among disparate forms of living and nonliving matter—and suggests possibilities for making materials more programmable and adaptive.