Abstract Machines are systems that harness input power to extend or advance function.
Fundamentally, machines are based on the integration of materials with mechanisms to …

Stimulus-responsive materials are able to response to a particular stimulus, such as, heat,
chemical, and light. As such, they are smarter and more intelligent than ordinary materials …

Intelligence of physical agents, such as human-made (eg, robots, autonomous cars) and
biological (eg, animals, plants) ones, is not only enabled by their computational intelligence …

The anticipated shift in the focal point of interest of solid-state chemists, crystal engineers,
and crystallographers from structure to properties to function parallels the need to apply our …

Memory consolidation is the process by which a newly formed and unstable memory
transforms into a stable long-term memory. It is unknown whether the process of memory …

Liquid crystalline elastomers (LCEs) are soft, anisotropic materials that exhibit large shape
transformations when subjected to various stimuli. Here we demonstrate a facile approach to …

Magnetic cooling could be a radically different energy solution substituting conventional
vapour compression refrigeration in the future. For the largest cooling effects of most …

Recent experiments on nanostructured materials, such as nanoparticles, nanowires,
nanotubes, nanopillars, thin films, and nanocrystals have revealed a host of “ultra-strength” …

After being severely and quasi-plastically distorted, shape memory materials (SMMs) are
able to recover their original shape at the presence of the right stimulus. In recent years we …

Functional shape memory alloys need to operate reversibly and repeatedly. Quantitative
measures of reversibility include the relative volume change of the participating phases and …