Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • NEWS AND VIEWS

A quirky fluid that has robotic capabilities

Scientists have designed a liquid that behaves as both a solid and a fluid owing to the presence of tiny gas-filled capsules. An unusual relationship between pressure and volume enables this material to grasp fragile objects.
  1. P.-T. Brun

    1. P.-T. Brun is in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

Solids, gases and liquids are states of matter with well-established — albeit dissimilar — properties. For instance, gases can be compressed, whereas liquids cannot; solids have a definite shape, but gases and liquids conform easily to a container. Writing in Nature, Djellouli et al.1 blur the lines between these states by developing a ‘metafluid’ with intriguing properties.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 628, 508-509 (2024)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-00888-x

References

  1. Djellouli, A. et al. Nature 628, 545–550 (2024).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Bertoldi, K., Vitelli, V., Christensen, J. & van Hecke, M. Nature Rev. Mater. 2, 17066 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Audoly, B. & Pomeau, Y. Elasticity and Geometry: From Hair Curls to the Non-linear Response of Shells (Oxford Univ. Press, 2010).

    Google Scholar 

  4. Boyer, F., Pouliquen, O. & Guazzelli, É. J. Fluid Mech. 686, 5–25 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Rus, D. & Tolley, M. T. Nature 521, 467–475 (2015).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Baroud, C. N., Gallaire, F. & Dangla, R. Lab Chip 10, 2032–2045 (2010).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Lohse, D. & Zhang, X. Nature Rev. Phys. 2, 426–443 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Xia, X., Spadaccini, C. M. & Greer, J. R. Nature Rev. Mater. 7, 683–701 (2022).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Truby, R. L. & Lewis, J. A. Nature 540, 371–378 (2016).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Bakarich, S. E. et al. Adv. Sci. 9, 2104402 (2022).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Brun, P.-T. JACS Au 2, 2417–2425 (2022).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Competing Interests

The author declares no competing interests.

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links