Dimensional analysis and soft matter physics always make for interesting and very readable papers.
What I like the most in this field, is the connection between mundane observations (crumbling paper, tearing scotch tape, pouring shampoo vs honey, etc, etc) and deep insights combining physical phenomenon.
It always makes me smile to see real world phenomenon explained with SIMPLE math but subtle physics
> we may consider the evolution of functional materials, such as proteins, where several recent works suggest that through continuous structural alterations, resulting from cyclic loading, genetic complexity is reduced via evolutionary selection to perform a specific mechanical task.
Not just the abstract; this entire paper is one of the most clearly-written and comprehensible scientific works I've ever laid eyes on. Figure 4b deserves an award.
I wonder how this sort of result might get applied in geology.