https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/09/220921113103.htm

The research appears online September 21 in the journal Nature.

"We're motivated by the idea of controlling material properties or mechanical behaviors of an engineered object on the fly, which could be useful for applications like soft robotics, augmented reality, biomimetic materials, and subject-specific wearables," said Xiaoyue Ni, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and materials science at Duke. "We are focusing on engineering the shape of matter that hasn't been predetermined, which is a pretty tall task to achieve, especially for soft materials."