Currently Bendy

Our clothes are getting smarter – sometimes fitted with wearable sensors that measure our fitness and health. Yet the choice of circuitry inside is often limited to 'soft' or 'hard' – restricting their potential uses or their durability. Here, a new method creates circuits that switch from hard to soft (and back again) – a change in temperature turns this circuit board from stiff and flat (top row), to soft and stretchy (bottom). The secret to these ‘transformative electronic systems’ is the gallium inside – rigid at room temperature, but stretching out when the raised above 29.8°C. Gallium is non-toxic, so these systems may be ideal for devices that work inside the human body as well as outside – such as a neural probe that becomes softer on contact with brain tissue.

Written by John Ankers

John Ankers

Writer

A former researcher in systems biology, John is now an online biology tutor and professional coach supporting the wellbeing of scientists and NHS professionals. He's writing, too, of course.

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• Image from work by Sang-Hyuk Byun and Joo Yong Sim, and colleagues
• School of Electrical Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon, Republic of Korea.
• Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
• Published in Science Advances, November 2019