(Nanowerk Spotlight) The materials we interact with every day—whether they are steel, glass, or rubber—have properties like strength, flexibility, or brittleness that stem from their chemical ...

Scientists are harnessing cells to make new types of materials that can grow, repair themselves and even respond to their environment. These solid “engineered living materials” are made by embedding ...

HAVE IDEAS ABOUT BOTH, FROM SPECIAL FILMS THAT ADAPT TO CHANGES IN HEAT. THE REALLY GREAT THING ABOUT THIS IS IT COULD BECOME, YOU KNOW, A SHADING SYSTEM. SO IT’S REALLY EASY TO RETROFIT ONTO EXISTING ...

Definition: Programmable Matter refers to materials that can change their physical properties (shape, density, modality, conductivity) in real-time, based on user input or autonomous sensing. This ...

Programmable material systems are emerging architectural structures but the co-design of structure, material, and external stimuli present grand challenges. A team with Northwestern Engineering’s Wei ...

Scientists are harnessing cells to make new types of materials that can grow, repair themselves and even respond to their environment. These solid 'engineered living materials' are made by embedding ...

Natural materials like bone, bird feathers and wood have an intelligent approach to physical stress distribution, despite their irregular architectures. However, the relationship between stress ...

MIT's Self-Assembly Lab has developed materials that can be programmed to transform their shape autonomously -- from flexible carbon fibre and hybrid plastics to wood grains and textiles. Skylar ...

A recent study published in Advanced Materials introduced a 4D printing method to create tubular moisture-responsive actuators called meta biocomposites. These structures use continuous flax fiber ...

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaig researchers show their 3D-printed resin prototype of the new bio-inspired material, here attached to a synthetic model of a fractured human femur. CHAMPAIGN, Ill ...