Researchers at MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms have created tiny building blocks that exhibit a variety of unique mechanical properties, such as the ability to produce a twisting motion when squeezed.

Researchers describe a new way to synthesize organic 'Legos', a chemical framework that can be easily modified and controlled to create new materials with unique properties. When chemists or engineers ...

In my two previous columns, I discussed the lower and intermediate levels of the building block approach for crashworthiness testing and analysis of composite structures. I focused on the commercial ...

A new robotics breakthrough could revolutionalize how we build everything from airplanes to bridges and even massive superstructures. A team of researchers at the Massachusettes Institute of ...

Four types of discretely assembled mechanical metamaterials. Left to right: Rigid, compliant, auxetic, and chiral. (A) As-molded face parts. (B) Single voxel, front view. (C) A 2 × 2 × 2 cube, front ...