In this video excerpt from NOVA's "Making Stuff: Smarter", host and New York Times technology columnist David Pogue visits Virginia Tech, where scientists are developing an artificial jellyfish that ...

Researchers have developed a novel copper-based alloy that exhibits a special shape memory effect at temperatures as low as -200°C. The work has been published in the journal Communications ...

A study led by Tohoku University, Iwate University, The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), National Astronomical Observation of Japan, Tokyo City University, and Kyoto University developed a ...

Besides superfluous features like touchscreens and internal cameras, basic refrigerator technology hasn't changed much in decades. They still chill your milk by way of chemical refrigerants and ...

Shape memory materials (SMMs) are featured by the ability to recover their original shape from a significant and seemingly plastic deformation upon a particular stimulus is applied 1. This is known as ...

A German research team has prototyped an extraordinary heating/cooling system that stresses and unloads nickel-titanium "muscle wires" to create heated and cooled air at twice the efficiency of a heat ...

Humanity may be divided on a great many issues, but most would agree that it would be very cool to have airplane wings made of shapeshifting metal. The geometry of those fabulous foils affects ...

Imagine a world of shape-shifters. A surgeon inserts a small lump of plastic into an anesthetized patient and, like magic, it expands into a life-saving mesh tube that keeps a formerly clogged artery ...

The basis of the nickel-titanium shape memory alloy (SMA) class is the intermetallic equiatomic binary alloy NiTi. Thanks to its moderate solubility range, its composition can be changed, and it can ...

The use of shape memory alloys to manufacture implantable medical devices represents a high-growth portion of the medical materials market today. The ability of these specialized alloys to expand or ...