A world first at the microscopic scale: Metamaterials that can shrink and expand on their own

A world first at the microscopic scale: Metamaterials that can shrink and expand on their own

Leiden physicists Daniela Kraft and Julio Melio have created soft structures that can take on different shapes without any external drive in their lab. They present their research on microscale metamaterials in Nature—a breakthrough that opens the door to smart, reconfigurable materials and microscopic robots.