  Soft materials such as colloidal suspensions, polymer solutions and liquid
crystals are constituted by mesoscopic entities held together by weak forces.
Their mechanical moduli are several orders of magnitude lower than those of
atomic solids. The application of small to moderate stresses to these materials
results in the disruption of their microstructures. The resulting flow is
non-Newtonian and is characterised by features such as shear rate-dependent
viscosities and non-zero normal stresses. This article begins with an
introduction to some unusual flow properties displayed by soft matter.
Experiments that report a spectrum of novel phenomena exhibited by these
materials, such as turbulent drag reduction, elastic turbulence, the formation
of shear bands and the existence of rheological chaos, flow-induced
birefringence and the unusual rheology of soft glassy materials, are reviewed.
The focus then shifts to observations of the liquid-like response of granular
media that have been subjected to external forces. The article concludes with
examples of the patterns that emerge when certain soft materials are vibrated,
or when they are displaced with Newtonian fluids of lower viscosities.
