https://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. A smartwatch can tell us the level of oxygen in our blood, when our sleep is restless or the number of steps we take in a day. Now imagine that kind of tracking ability for plants. By the time farmers see curling leaves or stunted growth in their fields, their crops may already have spent days under stress. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-wearables-track-health-farmers-real.html Biotechnology Thu, 09 Jul 2026 10:20:07 EDT news702807380 Over the past decade, Professor L. Mahadevan's Soft Math Lab at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) has helped establish how the ancient Japanese paper arts of folding or cutting can be used to inversely design structures that transform dramatically in shape and function. Now, the researchers have created a new class of shape-changing matter, based not on folds or cuts, but linkages—networks of interconnected scissor mechanisms that collapse into lines and deploy into curved surfaces. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-collapsible-scissored-surfaces-trilogy-metamaterial.html General Physics Wed, 24 Jun 2026 15:20:03 EDT news701524441 Inspired by the Japanese art of kirigami, a team of scientists from the University of Amsterdam have developed a material that can reflect different colors of light, depending on how it is stretched. The results were recently published in the journal ACS Photonics. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-chameleon-nanomaterial-mechanical-strain.html Nanophysics Fri, 05 Dec 2025 11:43:40 EST news684157381 A research team from the Institute of Biological Information Processing (IBI-3) at Forschungszentrum Jülich, working with partners across Germany, has developed an innovative technique for folding flexible, high-density microelectrodes into three-dimensional shapes inspired by the Japanese paper art of kirigami. https://phys.org/news/2025-06-scientists-3d-neuroprobes-based-kirigami.html Bio & Medicine Mon, 16 Jun 2025 12:30:03 EDT news669295507 Kirigami is a traditional Japanese art form that entails cutting and folding paper to produce complex three-dimensional (3D) structures or objects. Over the past decades, this creative practice has also been applied in the context of physics, engineering, and materials science research to create new materials, devices and even robotic systems. https://phys.org/news/2025-05-intuitive-geometric-method-inverse-kirigami.html General Physics Sun, 25 May 2025 09:00:01 EDT news667223147 The practice of purposely looping thread to create intricate knit garments and blankets has existed for millennia. Though its precise origins have been lost to history, artifacts like a pair of wool socks from ancient Egypt suggest it dates back as early as the third to fifth century CE. Yet, for all its long-standing ubiquity, the physics behind knitting remains surprisingly elusive. https://phys.org/news/2025-02-theoretical-physics.html General Physics Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:19:13 EST news659355547 Two-dimensional (2D) materials have atomic-level thickness and excellent mechanical and physical properties, with broad application prospects in fields such as semiconductors, flexible devices, and composite materials. https://phys.org/news/2024-07-method-tuning-instability-2d-materials.html Nanophysics Mon, 22 Jul 2024 09:17:47 EDT news640858663 New options for making finely structured soft, flexible and expandable materials called hydrogels have been developed by researchers at Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (TUAT). https://phys.org/news/2024-04-laser-patterned-thin-kirigami-opportunities.html Nanomaterials Thu, 11 Apr 2024 12:47:03 EDT news632058422 Recent research has led to the development of film-type shape-configurable speakers. These speakers, based on the unique properties of MXene, offer tunable sound directivity and hold immense promise for the rapidly growing field of wearable electronics. The study is published in Advanced Materials. https://phys.org/news/2023-12-unveils-shape-configurable-mxene-based-thermoacoustic-loudspeakers.html Nanomaterials Fri, 01 Dec 2023 07:32:03 EST news620638321 Adhesive tape fulfills many purposes, from quickly fixing household appliances to ensuring a reliable seal on a mailed package. When using tape with a strong bond, removing it may only be possible by scraping and prying at the tape's corners, hoping desperately that surface pieces don't tear away with the tape. https://phys.org/news/2023-06-stronger-tape-ancient-japanese-art.html Materials Science Thu, 22 Jun 2023 12:00:01 EDT news606646660 The ancient art of origami is well known for transforming sheets of paper and other foldable materials into complex 3D shapes. But now, chemical engineers have extended the centuries-old practice to produce intricate shapes made of glass or other hard materials. Their thoroughly modern method, which can be combined with 3D printing, could have applications ranging from sculpture to catalysis and beyond. https://phys.org/news/2023-03-modern-origami-method-glass.html Materials Science Tue, 28 Mar 2023 05:23:21 EDT news599199796 A traditional paper crane is a feat of artistry. Every fold in origami leads to the transformation of a single square sheet of paper into a bird, a dragon, or a flower. Origami discourages gluing, marking or cutting the paper, but in the art of kirigami, strategically placed cuts can transform the shape of the paper even further, creating complex structures from simple slits. A well-known example of this is a pop-up book, where depending on how the flat paper is cut, a different set of shapes—a heart, a frog, a set of skyscrapers—will emerge when the book is opened. https://phys.org/news/2022-06-kirigami-inspired-metamaterials.html General Physics Tue, 28 Jun 2022 09:35:24 EDT news575627720 Semiconducting nanomaterials with 3D network structures have high surface areas and a lot of pores that make them excellent for applications involving adsorbing, separating, and sensing. However, simultaneously controlling the electrical properties and creating useful micro- and macro-scale structures, while achieving excellent functionality and end-use versatility, remains challenging. Now, Osaka University researchers, in collaboration with The University of Tokyo, Kyushu University, and Okayama University, have developed a nanocellulose paper semiconductor that provides both nano−micro−macro trans-scale designability of the 3D structures and wide tunability of the electrical properties. Their findings are published in ACS Nano. https://phys.org/news/2022-04-electronics-trees-nanocellulose-paper-semiconductors.html Nanomaterials Tue, 26 Apr 2022 11:00:12 EDT news570184363 The ancient arts of origami, the art of paper-folding, and kirigami, the art of paper-cutting, have gained popularity in recent years among researchers building mechanical metamaterials. Folding and cutting 2D thin-film materials transforms them into complex 3D structures and shapes with unique and programmable mechanical properties. https://phys.org/news/2021-11-origami-kirigami-mechanical-metamaterials.html General Physics Tue, 23 Nov 2021 11:00:02 EST news556872557 Researchers have designed electromechanically reconfigurable ultrathin optical elements that can be controlled and programmed on a pixel-by-pixel level. These versatile metasurfaces could offer a new chip-based way to achieve nanoscale control of light, which could lead to better optical displays, information encoding and digital light processing. https://phys.org/news/2021-09-reconfigurable-metasurfaces-nanoscale.html Optics & Photonics Thu, 09 Sep 2021 18:26:56 EDT news550430813 Researchers at North Carolina State University have developed materials that can be used to create structures capable of transforming into multiple different architectures. The researchers envision applications ranging from construction to robotics. https://phys.org/news/2021-09-metamorphosis-materials-shape-shifting-architecture.html Condensed Matter Wed, 08 Sep 2021 09:04:12 EDT news550310649 A new approach to producing metamaterials draws on kirigami techniques to make three-dimensional, reconfigurable building blocks that can be used to create complex, dynamic structures. Because the design approach is modular, these structures are easy to both assemble and disassemble. https://phys.org/news/2021-08-three-dimensional-kirigami-blocks-dynamic-metamaterials.html Nanomaterials Mon, 09 Aug 2021 13:41:01 EDT news547735252 Curved imagers that can adjust their shape could have many valuable applications, for instance, aiding the development of more advanced medical imaging tools and cameras. Most existing flexible curvy imagers, however, are either not compatible with tunable focal surfaces or can only capture images with low resolutions and pixel fill factors. https://phys.org/news/2021-07-curvy-shape-adaptive-imager-based-optoelectronic.html General Physics Fri, 23 Jul 2021 09:30:02 EDT news546246636 A new technique that mimics the ancient Japanese art of kirigami may offer an easier way to fabricate complex 3D nanostructures for use in electronics, manufacturing and health care. https://phys.org/news/2021-03-kirigami-style-fabrication-enable-3d-nanostructures.html Nanophysics Wed, 31 Mar 2021 09:55:47 EDT news536403343 Multistable mechanical metamaterials are artificial materials whose microarchitecture offers more than two different stable configurations. Existing mechanical metamaterials rely on origami or kirigami-based designs with snap-through instability and microstructured soft mechanisms. Scalable structures that can be built from mechanical metamaterials with an extremely large number of programmable stable configurations remain elusive. In a new report now published on Science Advances, Hang Zhang and a research team in engineering, electronics, and advanced structure technology in Beijing China, used the elastic tensile/compressive asymmetry of kirigami microstructures to design a class of X-shaped tristable structures. The team used these constructs as building block elements to build hierarchical mechanical metamaterials with one-dimensional cylindrical geometries, 2D square lattices and 3D cubic or octahedral lattices with multidirectional multistability. The number of stable states increased with the cell number of mechanical metamaterials incorporated in the work, and the versatile multistability and structural diversity demonstrated applications within mechanical ternary logic operators with unusual functionalities. https://phys.org/news/2021-03-hierarchical-mechanical-metamaterials-multiple-stable.html Nanophysics Fri, 12 Mar 2021 10:10:01 EST news534764432 Paper snowflakes, pop-up children's books and elaborate paper cards are of interest to more than just crafters. A team of Northwestern University engineers is using ideas taken from paper-folding practices to create a sophisticated alternative to 3-D printing. https://phys.org/news/2020-12-japanese-artform-technique.html Nanomaterials Tue, 22 Dec 2020 13:11:51 EST news527865099 Scientists have recently explored the unique properties of nonlinear waves to facilitate a wide range of applications including impact mitigation, asymmetric transmission, switching and focusing. In a new study now published on Science Advances, Bolei Deng and a team of research scientists at Harvard, CNRS and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering in the U.S. and France harnessed the propagation of nonlinear waves to make flexible structures crawl. They combined bioinspired experimental and theoretical methods to show how such pulse-driven locomotion could reach a maximum efficiency when the initiated pulses were solitons (solitary wave). The simple machine developed in the work could move across a wide range of surfaces and steer onward. The study expanded the variety of possible applications with nonlinear waves to offer a new platform for flexible machines. https://phys.org/news/2020-05-pulse-driven-robot-motion-solitary.html General Physics Fri, 08 May 2020 10:05:08 EDT news508151086 The counterintuitive question on how to wrap a curved spherical surface using conventionally stiff and non-stretchable or brittle materials, forms the basis of this study. To answer the question, Yu-Ki Lee and a research team in the departments of materials engineering and computer science in the Republic of Korea and the U.S. extended a geometrical design method of computational origami to wrap spherical constructs in a new report now published in Science Advances. The approach provided a robust and reliable method to engineer conformal devices for arbitrary curved surfaces using a computationally designed nonpolyhedral developable net. The computer-aided design transformed two-dimensional (2-D) materials such as silicon (Si) wafers and steel sheets into conformal structures that could fully wrap 3-D structures without fracture or deformation. The computational wrapping method allowed them to develop a design platform to transform conventionally non-stretchable 2-D devices into conformal 3-D curved surfaces. https://phys.org/news/2020-04-origami-universal-method-d-surfaces.html Materials Science Wed, 15 Apr 2020 10:20:02 EDT news506163557 Surface electromyography (sEMG) is widely used to investigate human motion including athletic performance. Baseball pitchers require very precise movements to pitch the ball to the strike zone, where the palm muscle plays a key role during movement. Recording the sEMG from the palm can help analyze motion during baseball pitching, however, currently available devices are bulky with rigid electrodes that impede natural movement of the wearer. Kento Yamagishi and a team of researchers in the School of Advanced Science and Engineering, Faculty of Sports, and Digital Manufacture and Design in Japan, therefore described a new skin-contact patch. The wearable device contained kirigami-based stretchable wirings and conductive polymer nanosheet-based ultraconformable bioelectrodes. The research team designed the device to address the mechanical mismatch between human skin and electronics and published the results on Nature Asia Materials. https://phys.org/news/2019-12-elastic-kirigami-patch-electromyographic-analysis.html Nanomaterials Fri, 27 Dec 2019 09:40:01 EST news496648007 Materials scientists aim to use bioinspired soft robots to carry out advanced interactions between humans and robots, but the associated technology remains to be developed. For example, soft actuators must perform quickly with force to deliver programmable shape changes and the devices should be easy to fabricate and energy efficient for untethered applications. In a new report on Science Advances, Zoey S. Davidson and an interdisciplinary research team in the departments of Physical Intelligence, Materials Science and Engineering, and the School of Medicine in Germany, U.S. and Turkey, combined several characteristics of interest using two distinct active materials systems to build soft robots. https://phys.org/news/2019-12-shape-programmable-dielectric-liquid-crystal-elastomer.html General Physics Mon, 09 Dec 2019 09:30:01 EST news495099424 Researchers from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have developed a mathematical framework that can turn any sheet of material into any prescribed shape, inspired by the paper craft termed kirigami (from the Japanese, kiri, meaning to cut and kami, meaning paper). https://phys.org/news/2019-08-mathematical-framework-sheet-material-kirigami.html Mathematics Tue, 20 Aug 2019 16:35:41 EDT news485537728 Wearable electronic human-machine interfaces (HMIs) are an emerging class of devices to facilitate human and machine interactions. Advances in electronics, materials and mechanical designs have offered pathways toward commercial wearable HMI devices. However, existing devices are uncomfortable since they restrict the human body's motion with slow response times and challenges to realize multiple functions. In a recent report on Science Advances, Kyoseung Sim and an interdisciplinary research team in materials science and engineering, mechanical engineering, biomedical engineering, electrical and computer engineering in the U.S. and China, detailed the development of a novel polymer. https://phys.org/news/2019-08-metal-oxide-semiconductor-nanomembrane-based-multifunctional-electronics.html Nanophysics Wed, 14 Aug 2019 09:40:02 EDT news484984771 Solid matter typically contains a single, stable solid state for a specific set of conditions. Materials scientists envision that new materials with interchangeable solid states will be advantageous for diverse technical applications. In a new report now published on Nature Materials, Fut (Kuo) Yang and colleagues in the interdisciplinary departments of Chemical Engineering, Bioengineering and Biotechnology in Canada and China described the development of a two-in-one hybrid material. https://phys.org/news/2019-08-hybrid-material-reversibly-stable-solid.html Materials Science Wed, 07 Aug 2019 09:40:02 EDT news484381497 With a light-spinning device inspired by the Japanese art of paper cutting, University of Michigan researchers have detected microscopic twists in the internal structure of plant and animal tissue without harmful X-rays. https://phys.org/news/2019-07-kirigami-terahertz-rays-real-peer.html Materials Science Tue, 02 Jul 2019 08:39:10 EDT news481275542 Hydrogels are polymer networks infiltrated with water, widely used for tissue engineering vehicles of drug delivery and novel platforms for biomedical engineering. Emerging applications for new hydrogel materials call for robustness under cyclic mechanical loads. Materials scientists have developed tough hydrogels that resist fracture under a single cycle of mechanical load, yet these toughened gels still suffer from fatigue fracture under multiple cycles of loads. The present fatigue threshold for synthetic hydrogels is reported in the order of 1 to 100 J/m2. https://phys.org/news/2019-02-anti-fatigue-fracture-hydrogels.html Polymers Mon, 11 Feb 2019 09:30:03 EST news469096348