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Morphing metamaterial models take origami to a whole new level

Metamaterials are an almost magical class of materials that can do things that seem impossible, but they can only perform one miracle at a time. Now Harvard researchers have come up with a toolkit for constructing metamaterials that flow from one shape and function into another, like origami.

Metamaterials have been around since the 1940s, but only in recent years has their development taken off. Unlike conventional substances, metamaterials have functions and properties that are independent of what they’re made of. Instead, their repetitive microstructures allow them to do the seemingly impossible – think flat lenses that act like they’re curved, structures that shrink instead of expanding when heated, and even invisibility cloaks.

The problem is that the substructures that metamaterials rely on are very specific, so each metamaterial can only do one thing at a time. Last year, Harvard researchers demonstrated a way to overcome this limitation with reconfigurable metamaterials made of thin polymer sheets. Now a team from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and the Wyss Institute of Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University have developed a more general framework to help engineers to create metamaterials that can change shape and function.

Scientists Have Made a New Kind of Invisibility Cloak

In Brief

  • “Cloaking” or invisibility technology is a kind of scientific Holy Grail; but actually concealing objects in direct light is notoriously difficult.
  • A team of researchers has now found a way to achieve potential perfect invisibility by bending light—but only in “diffusive” atmospheres.

Concealing objects in direct light is already a difficult feat. While there is ongoing research into invisibility cloaks of some form or other, researchers at the Public University of Navarre (NUP/UPNA) and the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) are taking a not-so-straightforward approach. In particular, they are interested in developing a cloaking mechanism that works by bending light.

The team, whose work is published in the journal Physical Review A, has worked on simulations of an invisibility technology that conceals objects in diffusive atmospheres. This kind of invisibility, based on their study, can be achieved by surrounding an object with a special material that’s capable of bending light around it.

New low-cost technique converts bulk alloys to oxide nanowires

A simple technique for producing oxide nanowires directly from bulk materials could dramatically lower the cost of producing the one-dimensional (1D) nanostructures.

That could open the door for a broad range of uses in lightweight structural composites, advanced sensors, electronic devices – and thermally-stable and strong battery membranes able to withstand temperatures of more than 1,000 degrees Celsius.

The technique uses a solvent reaction with a bimetallic alloy – in which one of the metals is reactive – to form bundles of nanowires (nanofibers) upon reactive metal dissolution.

On-demand pain relief, triggered by light

It will be amazing how this advances with Quantum.


Once injected into the body, a new material can repeatedly release small bursts of local anesthetic when zapped by low-intensity, near-infrared light for one minute (Nano Lett. 2016, DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.6b03588). The material’s developers, who have tested it in rats, say the on-demand system could make pain management safer and more effective, and give patients more control.

Engineers Australia : New lab-made diamond at mining’s cutting-edge

Australia getting their QC production lines ready with this advancement. BTW — get ready as the printers are coming soon.


The Australian National University (ANU) has led an international team to create a nano-sized diamond that’s harder than the natural gem and which will be useful for cutting through super-hard mining materials.

ANU Associate Professor Jodie Bradby said her team, including ANU PhD student Thomas Shiell and experts from RMIT, the University of Sydney and the United States, fabricated nano-sized Lonsdaleite, which is a hexagonal diamond only found in nature at meteorite impact sites, such as in Arizona’s Canyon Diablo.

‘This new diamond is not going to be on any engagement rings. You’ll more likely find it on a mining site, but I still think that diamonds are a scientist’s best friend,’ said Assoc Prof Bradby from the ANU Research School of Physics and Engineering.

MIT create adaptive 3D printing process using light

Researchers at MIT have developed a method of altering 3D printed objects once printed. The technique involves using light in order to adapt the chemical structure of a 3D printed material. This allows the creation of more complex objects which could be molded together, softened, or even enlarged.

The university is a hub of 3D printing research. Recently announcement include their Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab creating the ‘photoshop for 3D printing’. The ‘Foundry’ software was developed in order to make use of 3D printing’s advanced capabilities over conventional manufacturing techniques. Also addressing 3D printing technology, MIT researchers looked at using 3D printing to investigate how graphene might create the strongest material ever.

The newly published paper is called ‘Living Additive Manufacturing: Transformation of Parent Gels into Diversely Functionalized Daughter Gels Made Possible by Visible Light Photoredox Catalysis’ and available in the ACS Central Science Journal.

Nanowire ‘inks’ enable low-cost paper- or plastic-based printable electronics

Duke University chemists have found that silver nanowire films like these conduct electricity well enough to form functioning circuits without applying high temperatures, enabling printable electronics on materials like paper or plastic. (credit: Ian Stewart and Benjamin Wiley)

By suspending tiny metal nanoparticles in liquids, Duke University scientists can use conductive ink-jet-printed conductive “inks” to print inexpensive, customizable RFID and other electronic circuit patterns on just about any surface — even on paper and plastics.

Printed electronics, which are already being used widely in devices such as the anti-theft radio frequency identification (RFID) tags you might find on the back of new DVDs, currently have one major drawback: for the circuits to work, they first have to be heated to 200° C (392°F) to melt all the nanoparticles together into a single conductive wire.

Scientists Have Found a Drug That Regenerates Teeth, and It Could Reduce the Need for Fillings

Researchers have identified a drug that can regenerate teeth from the inside out, possibly reducing the need for artificial fillings.

The drug was previously used in Alzheimer’s clinical trials, and it now appears to improve the tooth’s natural ability to heal itself. It works by activating stem cells inside the tooth’s pulp centre, prompting the damaged area to regenerate the hard dentin material that makes up the majority of a tooth.

“The simplicity of our approach makes it ideal as a clinical dental product for the natural treatment of large cavities, by providing both pulp protection and restoring dentine,” said lead author Paul Sharpe from King’s College London.

The Biocrystal- Holographic Properties Of DNA

Interesting position.


Anonymous by request.

The human energy field exists as an array of oscillating energy points that have a layered structure and a definite symmetry and these properties fulfill the definition of a normal crystal in material form” – Marc Vogel.

The human body is a universe onto itself; a vast, intricate system of incredible sensitivity and detail. It has been the subject of wonder, philosophy and scientific study for centuries, yet its most elemental design is still shrouded in mystery. What is the relation of biological life to the Cosmos – to the fabric of space and time itself? Is our body the “earthen machine” of Descartes; an “automaton” of discrete mechanical function? Are we really locked in an endless struggle against the ticking clock of thermodynamic entropy – of increasing disorder – as is the view of contemporary physics? The fractal-holographic model sheds new light on these questions; a unified description of the Cosmos reveals its true relation to Man, a relationship so entangled, so intimate that the two cannot be viewed apart…