04 September 2016
Creative Block
The satisfying click of Lego bricks connecting reveals a genius idea – get the connection between building blocks right and the possibilities are endless. This cube is made of a squashy plastic metamaterial – push it from the top and out pops a smile onto one of its faces (pictured before squashing bottom right). But this secret smile is just a warm up; metamaterials could change lives. Similar cubes can be stacked so that they connect up like cogs in a machine to perform tasks, such as bending in precise directions inside customised prosthetic limbs. Different metamaterials react differently to pressure (or even to light or temperature) opening up a world of possibilities to bioengineers. From customised insoles for athletes to haptic devices that mimic human touch during surgery, the ability to invent (and play with) metamaterials is putting smiles on a lot of different faces.
Written by
- Image from work by Corentin Coulais and colleagues
- Huygens-Kamerlingh Onnes Laboratory, Universiteit Leiden, The Netherlands
- Image copyright held by Nature Publishing Group 2016
- Published in Nature, July 2016
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