Lyotropic Liquid Crystals and Life

Just as liquid crystals stand between the completely unorganized isotropic liquid and the strongly organized solids, life stands between the complete disorder and the complete rigidity. Indeed, lyotropic liquid crystals are very important in living organisms. 

Lyotropic liquid crystals were discovered much earlier than thermotropics, yet their importance so far has been overshadowed. However, this situation may change soon, since the display applications are getting mature, whereas the fast development in modem biology requires deeper understanding of 

---