A student playing around with fluids and magnetic materials in the lab may have accidentally found an "exception" to the laws of thermodynamics, according to the authors of a new paper based on his ...

Ask people what comes to mind when they hear the term “liquid metal,” and many of them say mercury—or they recall a particular shape-shifting villain from the “Terminator” movies. Not so for Michael D ...

While shape-memory materials do have some interesting potential applications, many of them require the application of heat in order to change shape – and that could cause problems, in ...

(Nanowerk Spotlight) The next generation of robots may not look anything like the rigid, mechanical machines we’re used to. Instead, imagine a robot that moves more like an octopus or a human hand, ...

(Nanowerk Spotlight) Smart materials that can change their properties like color or shape in response to external stimuli are highly desirable for advanced applications like soft robotics, adaptable ...

The liquid state of matter is an intermediate phase between solid and gas. Like the particles of a solid, particles in a liquid are subject to intermolecular attraction; however, liquid particles have ...