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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

MINIMAL ENERGY MANUFACTURING. "Athlough not commercially available, self-assembly is just the beginning of a whole innovative world of manufacturing with minimal energy." https://lnkd.in/dirgGK8 View in LinkedIn

LIQUID CRYSTAL STATE. "Conventionally, scientists think of matter existing in one of three well-defined states of aggregation, namely; solids, liquids, and gases. The dominant feature of the crystalline state is the strong bonding between molecules giving this state of matter an orderly arrangement. Liquid crystals are another state of matter, structurally falling between the solid and the liquid states." https://lnkd.in/dqhSUxY View in LinkedIn

SELF-EVOLVING STRUCTURES. “A new design of complex self-evolving structures… vary over time due to environmental interaction.” Their new approach to additive manufacturing ensures not only that the material changes structure over time, but does so precisely, transforming “into a predetermined shape, changing property and function after fabrication.” https://lnkd.in/dxCnDdx View in LinkedIn

BEC. "A Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC) is a state of matter of a dilute gas of bosons cooled to temperatures very close to absolute zero (that is, very near 0 K or −273.15 °C). Under such conditions, a large fraction of bosons occupy the lowest quantum state, at which point macroscopic quantum phenomena become apparent." https://lnkd.in/dxNbPf8 View in LinkedIn

4D-PRINTED MEDICAL IMPLANTS. "Today, researchers are printing biocompatible parts to be implanted in our body ... We can now generate structures that will change shape and functionality without external intervention". One key health-care application might be cardiac stents, tubes placed inside the heart to aid healing. "We want to print parts that can survive a lifetime inside the body if necessary." https://lnkd.in/dcXrp-f View in LinkedIn

PLASMA AS FOURTH PHASE. "A plasma is a fluid, like a liquid or gas, but because of the charged particles present in a plasma, it responds to and generates electro-magnetic forces." http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/k-12/airplane/state.html View in LinkedIn