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Phase Transitions: Melting and Freezing

Phase Transitions: Melting and Freezing

Heating a crystalline solid increases the average energy of its atoms, molecules, or ions, and the solid gets hotter. At some point, the added energy becomes large enough to partially overcome the forces holding the molecules or ions of the solid in their fixed positions, and the solid begins the process of transitioning to the liquid state or melting. At this point, the temperature of the solid stops rising, despite the continual input of heat, and it remains constant until all of the solid is...

Phase Transitions: Sublimation and Deposition

Phase Transitions: Sublimation and Deposition

Some solids can transition directly into the gaseous state, bypassing the liquid state, via a process known as sublimation. At room temperature and standard pressure, a piece of dry ice (solid CO2) sublimes, appearing to gradually disappear without ever forming any liquid. Snow and ice sublimate at temperatures below the melting point of water, a slow process that may be accelerated by winds and the reduced atmospheric pressures at high altitudes. When solid iodine is warmed, the solid sublimes...

Phase Transitions

Phase Transitions

Whether solid, liquid, or gas, a substance's state depends on the order and arrangement of its particles (atoms, molecules, or ions). Particles in the solid pack closely together, generally in a pattern. The particles vibrate about their fixed positions but do not move or squeeze past their neighbors. In liquids, although the particles are closely spaced, they are randomly arranged. The position of the particles are not fixed—that is, they are free to move past their neighbors to...

Phase Diagram

Phase Diagram

The phase of a given substance depends on the pressure and temperature. Thus, plots of pressure versus temperature showing the phase in each region provide considerable insights into the thermal properties of substances. Such plots are known as phase diagrams. For instance, in the phase diagram for water (Figure 1), the solid curve boundaries between the phases indicate phase transitions (i.e., temperatures and pressures at which the phases coexist).

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Oct 4, 2025

Combining Microfluidics and Microrheology to Determine Rheological Properties of Soft Matter during Repeated Phase Transitions

Combining Microfluidics and Microrheology to Determine Rheological Properties of Soft Matter during Repeated Phase Transitions

Published on: April 19, 2018

Sculpting tissues by phase transitions.

Pierre-François Lenne¹, Vikas Trivedi^2,3

¹Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, UMR 7288, IBDM, Turing Center for Living Systems, Marseille, France. pierre-francois.lenne@univ-amu.fr.

Nature Communications

|February 4, 2022

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Biological systems exhibit solid, liquid, and gas-like phases, crucial for development and disease. Understanding cellular interactions and novel detection methods are key to studying these phase transitions in vivo.

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Last Updated: Oct 4, 2025

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Published on: April 19, 2018

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Area of Science:

Biophysics
Cell Biology
Developmental Biology

Background:

Biological systems exhibit emergent properties analogous to physical states of matter (solid, liquid, gas).
Cellular interactions drive macroscopic properties like fluidity and rigidity, fundamental to biological processes.
Phase transitions are critical in development and diseases like cancer, involving changes between rigid and flowing cellular states.

Purpose of the Study:

To explore the analogy between biological and inert physical systems regarding phase transitions.
To discuss the similarities and limitations of applying physical phase transition concepts to biology.
To highlight the unique biological factors influencing macroscopic properties and phase transitions.

Main Methods:

Theoretical comparison of biological and physical systems.
Review of experimental evidence for phase transitions in biological systems.
Discussion of emerging in vivo detection approaches for biological phase transitions.

Main Results:

Biological phase transitions are driven by cell-cell interactions, growth, death, and matrix secretion.
Confluent cell movements can lead to kinematic phase transitions, similar to multi-particle systems.
Macroscopic properties arise from complex microscopic cellular behaviors unique to biology.

Conclusions:

The physical phase analogy provides a useful framework but has limitations due to unique biological factors.
Understanding cellular interplay is crucial for interpreting biological phase transitions.
Novel in vivo detection methods are emerging to study tissue organization and behavior.