Discovery unlocks new exotic properties for soft robotics, smart devices, and more. When you pull something—like a rubber band—you expect it to get longer. But what if it did the …
Without electronics carrying out computational tasks our daily lives would look very different. Devices such as elevators, vending machines, turnstiles, washing machines and even traffic lights use a simple form …
Corrugated plastic unveils a new design principle for programmable materials
Corrugated plastic turns out to be exemplary of a new class of ‘multistable’ metamaterials that can reversibly change shape. This insight can lead to new applications, from robots to medical …
A block of rubber that counts to ten and even remembers in which sequence it was compressed. Physicists Martin van Hecke and Lennard Kwakernaak (Leiden and AMOLF Amsterdam) share a …
Floppy or not: artificial intelligence predicts properties of complex metamaterials
Given a 3D piece of origami, can you flatten it without damaging it? Just by looking at the design, the answer is hard to predict, because each and every fold …
New puppeteering: streamlined control of material deformation
In a new publication in Nature Communications, a team of physicists from Amsterdam, Leiden and Georgia (USA) show how to ‘puppeteer’ lab-designed metamaterials. By only touching these materials from the …
Nieuw marionettenspel: het gestroomlijnd sturen van materiaalvervorming
In een nieuwe publicatie in Nature Communications laat een team van natuurkundigen uit Amsterdam, Leiden en Georgia (VS) zien hoe in het laboratorium ontworpen metamaterialen als marionetten kunnen worden aangestuurd.
A piece of corrugated rubber can function as a simple computer, displaying memory and dis-playing the ability to count to two. Physicists from Leiden University and AMOLF published about the …
Een stukje geribbeld rubber functioneert als een eenvoudige computer, met geheugen en het vermogen om tot twee te tellen. Natuurkundige onderzoekers van Universiteit Leiden en van onderzoeksinstituut AMOLF publiceren erover …
Anne Meeussen wins the Ehrenfest-Afanassjewa thesis prize 2021
Today, the Dutch Physics Council announces that former PhD student Anne Meeussen (Mechanical Metamaterials group at AMOLF and Leiden University) wins the Ehrenfest-Afanassjewa thesis prize 2021. Meeussen defended her thesis …
