During the early stages of life, organs do not just appear in their final form. They take shape through a process of controlled bending, twisting, and folding. These changes help cells organize into ...

With 4D printing, the objects can change shape or properties using external stimuli such as temperature, light, pH, magnetic field, electricity, and moisture. Additionally, the changes in shape or ...

Drawing inspiration from how plants change shape in response to environmental stimuli, Harvard scientists from the Wyss Institute and John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences have ...

Enter 4D materials, which are like 3D materials, but they change shape when they are exposed to specific environmental cues, such as light or water. These materials have been eyed by biomedical ...

Combining materials with different swelling ratios creates structures that transform into tubes when exposed to water. (Courtesy: Yu Bin Lee) Materials that controllably change shape over time – often ...

Nowadays, 3D printing allows items to be created from a wide variety of materials — plastic, ceramic, glass, metal and even stranger ingredients such as chocolate and living cells. The machines work ...

Consider the humble pinecone. Found scattered on forest floors and covered in woody scales, the pinecone is a perfect example of nature’s clever shape-shifting engineering. When it is wet and humid, ...

Using a new technique known as 4D printing, researchers can print out dynamic 3D structures capable of changing their shapes over time. Such 4D-printed items could one day be used in everything from ...