Minor changes in moisture level can promote lipid molecules to reorganize themselves in biomaterial or biomembranes. This can ...

The researchers turned to hydrogels, which are water-rich, jelly-like polymers that respond to temperature and chemicals. But instead of layering different materials or embedding electronics, they ...

Rice becomes weaker when compressed quickly, while staying stronger under slow pressure—a discovery enabling scientists to design a new material that could be used to build "soft" robots that change ...

Researchers are blurring the lines between robotics and materials, with a proof-of-concept material-like collective of robots with behaviors inspired by biology. Researchers at UC Santa Barbara and TU ...

Despite the prevalence of synthetic materials across different industries and scientific fields, most are developed to serve a limited set of functions. To address this inflexibility, researchers at ...

Engineers have developed a smart material that could significantly enhance energy efficiency for indoor space cooling. The new thermochromic polymer blend has an estimated lifespan of 60 years and is ...

Smart soft materials have one or more characteristics that can be significantly altered in convertible fashions by external stimuli, such as light, moisture, mechanical force, temperature, ...

Stimulus sensitivity: They contain specific responsive groups that react to external triggers such as heat, light, mechanical stress, electric and magnetic fields, gases, pH, or particular chemicals.