EPJ E Colloquium - What is active wetting?

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Published on 06 July 2026

Wetting describes how liquids spread, recede, or form droplets on various substrates. While classical wetting theory was developed largely for passive liquids, the term “active wetting” has recently been used in diverse nonequilibrium settings, including biomolecular condensates, cell layers and aggregates, and suspensions of self-propelled particles. This growing use makes it timely to ask what, if anything, the term should mean across such different systems.

In a new Colloquium, published in EPJ E, Uwe Thiele (University of Münster, Germany), discusses a tentative classification of wetting phenomena distinguishing equilibrium wetting, where interfacial energies determine a final static state; relaxational wetting, where a system evolves toward such a state; driven wetting, where external forcing maintains motion or deformation; reactive wetting, where chemical or material changes modify the involved interfaces; and active wetting, where internal energy-consuming processes such as motility, growth, or active stresses affect wetting behavior.

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From molecules to networks — highlights from the EPJB–EPJE mini-symposium at the Enrico Fermi Research Center, Rome

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Published on 01 July 2026

On June 11th, 2026, the editorial boards of The European Physical Journal B and The European Physical Journal E met in person at the Centro Ricerche Enrico Fermi (CREF) in Rome, for a joint mini-symposium and editorial board meetings — a first for the two journals.

The mini-symposium — "From Molecules to Networks: Fluctuations, Scaling, and Collective Dynamics across Soft and Complex Matter" — brought together five invited speakers working at the frontier of statistical physics, soft matter, and complex systems: the shared scientific territory of EPJB and EPJE (mini-symposium minutes here).

EPJ D Highlight - Generating powerful BEUV light with a next-gen free-electron laser

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Published on 08 June 2026

Using the SHINE facility, researchers show that undulator tapering can unlock kilowatt-level beyond extreme ultraviolet free-electron laser radiation with controllable polarisation

Free-electron lasers (FELs) produce extremely short, bright pulses of light by passing bunches of electrons through an undulator: a periodic array of alternating magnets which force electrons to wiggle back and forth. This generates light which re-interacts with the electrons, causing their vibrations to resonate and vastly boosting the laser's intensity.

Through new research published in EPJ D, Hanxiang Yang, Haixiao Deng, and colleagues at the Shanghai Advanced Research Institute, part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, show how SHINE, a next-generation FEL facility under development, could be used to produce controllably polarised light in the beyond extreme ultraviolet (BEUV) range. These wavelengths are valuable across numerous fields of research and industry, and they are especially useful for optical lithography: a cutting-edge technique which uses light to transfer patterns onto light-sensitive layers. With tight levels of control over the light's polarisation, they could also be used to manufacture the integrated circuits demanded by many emerging technologies.

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