Liquid-crystal elastomers—which contain heat-responsive liquid-crystal molecules embedded in a stretchy polymer—could one day be used to make soft robots and biomedical devices. Typically, researchers ...

The technique is based on the ability of protein complexes to maintain their shapes in the gas phase and yields information about the solution structure that is otherwise difficult to obtain. It ...

The shapes programmed into a polymer by materials scientist Rafael Verduzco and graduate student Morgan Barnes appear in ambient conditions and melt away when heat is applied. The process also works ...

New approaches to creating shapes promise to simplify the design work behind the aesthetic surfaces found on consumer products. Pity the poor designers trying to generate eye-popping shapes for ...

Scientists have created a liquid crystal elastomer that can be molded into shapes that shift from one to another when heated. The material is intended for biomedical and robotics applications. Rice ...