Researchers at ETH Zurich achieved a shape memory effect for the first time with objects that are only a few nanometers in size. This can be used to manufacture tiny machinery and robotic devices .
Although just cute little creatures at first glance, the microscopic geckos and octopuses fabricated by 3D laser printing in the molecular engineering labs at Heidelberg University could open up n .
MIT engineers created shape-memory materials made of ceramic rather than of traditional metal. The development opens a new range of applications, especially for actuators in high-temperature settings.
Shape-memory polymers are an emerging class of smart polymer materials that have been a research focus since the 1980s in the materials sciences. Writing in Polymers, researchers from Spain and Italy have investigated the synergic effects of electrospun fibers and shape-memory properties, with implications for the fields of biomedical sciences, sensors, smart electronics, and actuators.