Pattern Formation in Lipid Membranes

This paper draws attention to a class of pseudo-two-dimensional materials which are exceptional candidates for observing a variety of time-dependent effects, including fractal growth during crystallization, grain-boundary formation and dynamics, interfacial melting, and wetting. These materials are planar macromolecular aggregates formed by amphiphiles in contact with water.1 Appropriate amphiphiles could be simple detergents and soaps or the more complicated lipids which we shall concentrate on in this paper.