Membranes are two-dimensional bodies that have infinite degrees of freedom, especially involving large amplitude motions. Thus, they possess an inherent instability and tends to transform spontaneously into three-dimensional objects.

This underlines their short and long-term self-driven structural and morphological dynamics with concurrent time evolution of the various physical and chemical properties. It also leads to the presence of a large amount of free energy that can be and is utilized to carry out a variety of self-assembly and self-organization processes at different length scales. In particular, it has now been ascertained that the physics of membranes plays a key role in understanding different life-processes, such as providing a semi-permeable envelope for the cell components with high specificity and in signaling between the cell and its surroundings.

These aspects of membranes have made them constitute a research topic of very strong multidisciplinary interest. Even within the sub-area of physics of membranes, we encounter a huge array of approaches and techniques to unravel the behavior of these complex, two-dimensional, non-equilibrium systems, like x-ray and neutron scattering, microscopy, spectroscopy, transport measurements, computer simulations, and theory.

In this Research Topic, we intend to cover some of these methods and the results they have yielded so far. Our focus will be to present a total, coherent view of the physics of membranes from their structures, dynamics, and properties that have some relevance to the bio-sciences. We would also focus more on lipids than any other materials, for the same reason. We welcome contributions that bring in results from experiments, computer simulations, and theory (mainly the statistical mechanics of membranes) that show the latest advancements in physics of membranes.

Keywords: properties, interactions, dynamics, structure, membranes

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