Materials are usually seen as either soft (like rubber) or hard (like steel). But what if materials could change their stiffness whenever needed—soft for cushioning, stiff for support? Mechanical ...

(Nanowerk News) In the quest to develop robots and interactive machines that are safe, adaptable, and intelligent like organisms in nature, researchers have increasingly focused attention on soft and ...

The three innermost leaves contain three basic bistable units. The intermediate ring describes the basic preparation methods of multistable metamaterials: 3D printing (DIW, FDM, SLA, PolyJet, PBF, ...

This Collection supports and amplifies research related to SDG 9 - Industry, Innovation & Infrastructure. Mechanical metamaterials, as a subset of engineered architected materials, have consistently ...

Mechanical metamaterials research demands interdisciplinary collaboration and innovation. (Nanowerk News) Metamaterials are artificially-structured materials with extraordinary properties not easily ...

Metamaterials are artificial materials comprised of an array of nanostructures, which serve as the building blocks, or "meta-atoms." Unlike natural materials, the properties of metamaterials are not ...

An international research team has developed mechanical metamaterials with a high elastic energy density. Highly twisted rods that deform helically provide these metamaterials with a high stiffness ...

Until now, designing complex metamaterials with specific mechanical properties required large and costly experimental and simulation datasets. The method enables ...

A recent review published in npj Metamaterials brings together a decade of research showing how nano-architected mechanical metamaterials are changing the way engineers think about strength, stiffness ...

Researchers have found that adding just the right amount of disorder to the structure of certain materials can make them more than twice as resistant to cracking. Cut open a bone and you'll see a ...

Metamaterials – artificially made materials with properties that aren’t found in the natural world – are poised to transform daily life. Their unique properties are enhancing products from sporting ...