Totimorphic structural materials can achieve any shape. Researchers from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have developed a shape-shifting material that can take and hold any possible shape, paving the way for a new type of multifunctional material that could be used in a range of applications, from robotics and biotechnology to architecture.

The research is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“Today’s shape-shifting materials and structures can only transition between a few stable configurations but we have shown how to create structural materials that have an arbitrary range of shape-morphing capabilities,” said L Mahadevan, the Lola England de Valpine Professor of Applied Mathematics, of Organismic and ...

New images have revealed detailed clues about how the first stars and structures were formed in the Universe and suggest the formation of the Galaxy got off to a fitful start.

An international team of astronomers from the University of Nottingham and Centro de Astrobiología (CAB, CSIC-INTA) used data from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC), the so-called Frontier Fields, to locate and study some of the smallest faintest galaxies in the nearby universe. This has revealed the formation of the galaxy was likely to be fitful. The first results have just been published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS).

One of the most interesting questions that astronomers have been trying to answer for decades is how and w...

Too little and too much sleep linked to cognitive decline. Like so many other good things in life, sleep is best in moderation. A multiyear study of older adults found that both short and long sleepers experienced greater cognitive decline than people who slept a moderate amount, even when the effects of early Alzheimer’s disease were taken into account. The study was led by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Poor sleep and Alzheimer’s disease are both a...

Large-area electronics (LAE) is an emerging technology for electronic device manufacture, such as printing or large-scale lithography, the process used to create flat panel displays and solar cells. Using LAE processes, engineers could create systems that are large (several square meters squared) and highly flexible; for instance, based on paper or plastic.

Over the past decade or so, many teams worldwide have been working on LAE systems. This has led to the creation of numerous innovative devices, such as large, flexible and sensing artificial skins for robots.

Researchers at Princeton University have recently realized a new wireless system based on LAE technology that can operate at gigahertz frequencies...