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Mechanical memory written and read remotely

A device has been developed that consists of mechanical bits, analogous to the magnetic bits used in computer hard drives. Information encoded in the bits programs the mechanical properties of the device.
  1. Corentin Coulais

    1. Corentin Coulais is at the Institute of Physics, University of Amsterdam, 1098 XH Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

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Digital memory systems are an integral part of computers — for example, hard drives are used to write and read data that are stored magnetically. Writing in Nature, Chen et al.1 report a device in which mechanically encoded information can be written, stored permanently and retrieved at will. Moreover, the encoded information determines the mechanical properties of the device. Just as hard drives revolutionized computer systems, devices such as this could open the door to the next generation of soft robots and engineering materials, or to any application in which it would be useful to program the mechanical properties of a device remotely.

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Nature 589, 360-361 (2021)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-00080-5

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