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PHASE CHANGES can be exploited because they involve energy, which can be used to do work. Future smart drugs will exploit these properties to deliver the payload based on materials reacting to a specific chemical environment. Just as semiconductors, the heart of modern electronics, are driven by the motions of electrons in crystals changing crystal conductivity properties, so will phase changes be harnessed in the future. View in LinkedIn

OUR TIDY WORLD is far from being so, and what we have long assumed as the basis of reality is so completely not the case. Take our physical world. I have a desk (solid), my cup of tea (liquid), and am breathing air (gas). That is about it, right? About a million miles wrong. These new states of matter will be the future toolbox of claytronics. View in LinkedIn

INSECT COLONY INSPIRED. "The design goal has shifted to creating catoms that are simple enough to only function as part of an ensemble, with the ensemble as a whole being capable of higher function." http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claytronics View in LinkedIn

HOLY GRAIL. "The goal of the researchers is to develop a millimeter scale catom with no moving parts, to allow for mass manufacturability. Millions of these microrobots will be able to emit variable color and intensity of light, allowing for dynamic physical rendering." http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claytronics View in LinkedIn

PROTOTYPE SHAPESHIFTER. "The researchers have developed algorithms that, given a three-dimensional shape, can determine how to reproduce it by folding a sheet of semi-rigid material with a distinctive pattern of flexible creases. To test out their theories, they built a prototype that can automatically assume the shape of either an origami boat or a paper airplane when it receives different electrical signals." https://lnkd.in/d-zYXBf View in LinkedIn

SHAPESHIFTING ROBOT. "By combining origami and electrical engineering, researchers at MIT and Harvard are working to develop the ultimate reconfigurable robot — one that can turn into absolutely anything." https://lnkd.in/d-zYXBf View in LinkedIn

DYNAMIC SMART MATERIALS. "Shoes, tires and clothing could be made to respond to weather conditions, changing their surface grip or their permeability; furniture could be made to self-assemble and cars to self-modify their aerodynamic components, thus increasing their speed." https://lnkd.in/d7VC6uu View in LinkedIn

DROPLETONS. "Excitons are formed when a photon strikes a material, particularly a semiconductor. If an electron is knocked loose, or excited, it leaves what is termed an “electron hole” behind. Excitons are called quasiparticles because the electrons and holes behave together as if they were a single particle ... two excitons that behave like a molecule." https://lnkd.in/dR2cJKA View in LinkedIn

BRILLIANT TED TALK from MIT'S Self-Assembly Lab. Described as an "unprecedented revolution" where the programming is embedded into materials themselves, and uses random common energy to construct nano and human scale shapes. https://lnkd.in/d7VC6uu View in LinkedIn

NEW STATES OF MATTER. "There was a time when states of matter were simple: Solid, liquid, gas. Then came plasma, Bose-Einstein condensate, supercritical fluid and more. Now the list has grown by one more, with the unexpected discovery of a new state dubbed “dropletons” that bear some resemblance to liquids but occur under very different circumstances." https://lnkd.in/dR2cJKA View in LinkedIn