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In our days, when we are spoilt with exceedingly complex toys, such as nuclear reactors or synchrotron sources, I particularly like to describe experiments of this Franklin style to my students.

— Pierre-Gilles de Gennes

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More quotes by Pierre-Gilles de Gennes

The real point of honor [for a scientist] is not to be always right. It is to dare to propose new ideas, and then to check them.

The real point of honor … is not to be always right. It is to dare to propose new ideas, and then to check them.

The final lines are not mine: they come from an experiment on soft matter, after Boudin… An English translation might run like this

A dense film of a conventional surfactant is quite impermeable. On the other hand, a dense film of Janus grains always has some interstices between the grains, and allows for chemical exchange between the two sides; "the skin can breathe". This may possibly be of some practical interest.

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