Scientists have now replicated that technique to produce self-folding paper structures. Like plants, paper is made up mostly of cellulose fibers. In both cases, when those fibers absorb water, they ...

When natural motion comes to mind, plants are most likely at the bottom of most people's list. The truth is that plants can perform complex movements, but they only do so very slowly. The main ...

Origami has inspired the design of structures with unique properties, finding a huge range of potential uses, including soft robots and stretchable electronics. Now researchers from Georgia Institute ...

Screams filled the laboratory – screams, thankfully, of joy. Akib Zaman, a PhD candidate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) had just made a mini chair appear, seemingly out of nowhere. He ...

In typical rollable structures, the cross-section is flat in the storage phase so that it can wrap smoothly around a central hub, and transforms into a corrugated cross-section in the deployed phase ...