Like Transformers, toy cars that change into robots and back, researchers have made a material that can transform its deep structure at the flick of a switch to take on different physical properties.

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Or it can transition smoothly between those properties.

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Architected materials are comprised of micron and nanoscale structures like crossbeams, arches, domes, and spirals, much like the elements of a building’s architecture. Researchers from the California Institute of Technology, the Georgia Institute of Technology, and ETH Zurich have made an architected material that shifts the shapes of these structures.

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When a slight current is applied, nanoscale beams thicken and bend into arches that increasingly bow as the current is boosted. The material maintains the new shape even when the current is off, and the shape can be changed back by reversing the current. Both are novel characteristics. Most materials that are designed to change […]

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