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12 November 2016

Shapeshifting to Order

This elegantly blooming flower isn’t growing on a plant and it’s certainly not natural. Instead, it’s been constructed in the lab from shape-shifting hydrogels – special polymers that can switch on cue from one form into another. Over the years a number of shape-changing materials have been developed, but they all need an external trigger to transform themselves. It might be something like altering the temperature or acidity, or adding particular chemicals. The polymers making up this flower are different, as they’re programmed to change shape at predetermined times without any external input. This clever trick happens due to the way that energy is stored up in the chemical bonds between the hydrogel molecules when the structure is created. While this flower might be pretty, a more useful application could be to make delayed-release drug delivery systems or even shape-shifting implants that spring into shape once they’re in the right place.

Written by Kat Arney

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BPoD stands for Biomedical Picture of the Day. Managed by the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences until Jul 2023, it is now run independently by a dedicated team of scientists and writers. The website aims to engage everyone, young and old, in the wonders of biology, and its influence on medicine. The ever-growing archive of more than 4000 research images documents over a decade of progress. Explore the collection and see what you discover. Images are kindly provided for inclusion on this website through the generosity of scientists across the globe.

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