Featured
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Letter |
Solvent-free, supersoft and superelastic bottlebrush melts and networks
Solvent-free, supersoft and superelastic polymer melts and networks made from bottlebrush macromolecules can display low modulus, high strain at break, and extraordinary elasticity.
- William F. M. Daniel
- , Joanna Burdyńska
- & Sergei S. Sheiko
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Article |
A three-dimensional engineered tumour for spatial snapshot analysis of cell metabolism and phenotype in hypoxic gradients
An engineered tumour model based on a rolling scaffold–tumour composite strip that can be rapidly disassembled for snapshot analyses preserves cell-to-cell interactions and enables spatial mapping of cell metabolism and cell phenotype.
- Darren Rodenhizer
- , Edoardo Gaude
- & Alison P. McGuigan
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Letter |
Fundamental limits of material toughening in molecularly confined polymers
In polymer-based nanocomposites the polymeric phase is often confined between stiff inorganic phases. The effect of this confinement on mechanical properties is assessed.
- Scott G. Isaacson
- , Krystelle Lionti
- & Geraud Dubois
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Letter |
Tough bonding of hydrogels to diverse non-porous surfaces
A hydrogel-design strategy achieves transparent and conductive bonding of synthetic hydrogels to a variety of non-porous surfaces, with interfacial toughness values over 1,000 J m−2.
- Hyunwoo Yuk
- , Teng Zhang
- & Xuanhe Zhao
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Letter |
Mechanics of fire ant aggregations
Aggregations of fire ants are viscoelastic with identical elastic and viscous moduli, and exhibit shear-thinning behaviour when deformed beyond the linear regime.
- Michael Tennenbaum
- , Zhongyang Liu
- & Alberto Fernandez-Nieves
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News & Views |
Fleeting defects line up
Short-lived topological defects in active liquid crystals can exhibit long-range, long-lived orientational order.
- Denis Bartolo
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Review Article |
Programmable and adaptive mechanics with liquid crystal polymer networks and elastomers
This Review discusses stimuli-responsive liquid crystalline polymer networks and elastomers as materials with programmable mechanics for use in functional devices.
- Timothy J. White
- & Dirk J. Broer
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Article |
The negative piezoelectric effect of the ferroelectric polymer poly(vinylidene fluoride)
Poly(vinylidene fluoride) exhibits a negative longitudinal piezoelectric coefficient. In situ X-ray diffraction measurements suggest that this effect is dependent on electromechanical coupling between the intermixed crystalline lamellae and amorphous regions.
- Ilias Katsouras
- , Kamal Asadi
- & Dago M. de Leeuw
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News & Views |
Straining to expand entanglements
Porous solids comprising a self-entangled coiled polymer fibre or metal wire reversibly increase their volume when either stretched or compressed in an axial direction, possibly providing a new type of mechanical behaviour for tuning functional properties.
- Ray H. Baughman
- & Alexandre F. Fonseca
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Article |
Topological defects in liquid crystals as templates for molecular self-assembly
Nanoscale environments created by topological defects in liquid crystals can template the self-assembly of molecular amphiphiles within the defects.
- Xiaoguang Wang
- , Daniel S. Miller
- & Nicholas L. Abbott
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Article |
Sequence heuristics to encode phase behaviour in intrinsically disordered protein polymers
Intrinsically disordered protein polymers can be designed to encode tunable lower or upper critical solution temperatures in physiological solutions.
- Felipe García Quiroz
- & Ashutosh Chilkoti
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News & Views |
Something out of nothing
The coupling of the electronic structure of organic semiconductors with the electromagnetic field in the vacuum by means of plasmonic antennas allows for a mobility boost.
- Alberto Salleo
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Article |
Conductivity in organic semiconductors hybridized with the vacuum field
The surface plasmon modes of periodic hole arrays in Ag and Al films enhance by one order of magnitude the conductivity and the carrier mobility of organic semiconducting films deposited on these structures.
- E. Orgiu
- , J. George
- & T. W. Ebbesen
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Article |
Microtubules self-repair in response to mechanical stress
Experiments show that the progressive softening of microtubules under mechanical stress results from the enlargement of pre-existing structural defects, and that the incorporation of tubulin dimers can restore the microtubule’s initial stiffness.
- Laura Schaedel
- , Karin John
- & Manuel Théry
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Letter |
Optimal wrapping of liquid droplets with ultrathin sheets
Highly bendable yet unstretchable ultrathin sheets can wrap a liquid droplet to form an optimal non-spherical shape that minimizes the unwrapped interfacial area, regardless of interfacial energies and the sheet’s mechanical properties.
- Joseph D. Paulsen
- , Vincent Démery
- & Narayanan Menon
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Letter |
Control of hierarchical polymer mechanics with bioinspired metal-coordination dynamics
Polymer materials with decoupled spatial structure and mechanical performance can be designed by tuning the relative concentration of two types of metal–ligand crosslink.
- Scott C. Grindy
- , Robert Learsch
- & Niels Holten-Andersen
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Article |
Flexible high power-per-weight perovskite solar cells with chromium oxide–metal contacts for improved stability in air
The use of a chromium oxide interlayer separating the perovskite film from the metal contacts improves the stability of perovskite solar cells in air. Deposited on thin plastic foils, these ultralight devices power model airplanes and dirigibles.
- Martin Kaltenbrunner
- , Getachew Adam
- & Siegfried Bauer
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News & Views |
Pinned down
A colloidal particle straddling an air/water interface experiences an unexpectedly large viscous drag.
- Vinothan N. Manoharan
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Letter |
Orientational order of motile defects in active nematics
Experiments and coarse-grained simulations show, in an active system based on microtubules, a system-spanning phase of motile defects with orientational order that persists over hours despite a defect lifetime of seconds.
- Stephen J. DeCamp
- , Gabriel S. Redner
- & Zvonimir Dogic
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Article |
Phage-mediated counting by the naked eye of miRNA molecules at attomolar concentrations in a Petri dish
An ultrasensitive method that uses a genetically engineered bacteriophage to bind miRNA in a one-to-one manner allows the counting, by the naked eye, of miRNA molecules at attomolar concentrations on Petri dishes.
- Xin Zhou
- , Peng Cao
- & Chuanbin Mao
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Letter |
Thermoresponsive actuation enabled by permittivity switching in an electrostatically anisotropic hydrogel
The temperature-mediated modulation of anisotropic electrostatics in response to changes of electrostatic permittivity in a hydrogel consisting of cofacially oriented electrolyte nanosheets imparts the hydrogel with actuation properties.
- Youn Soo Kim
- , Mingjie Liu
- & Takuzo Aida
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Article |
A pH-responsive supramolecular polymer gel as an enteric elastomer for use in gastric devices
A supramolecular elastic polymer that is stable in the acidic environment of the stomach but dissolves in the neutral-pH environment of the intestines is shown to function as a safe gastric-retentive device in pigs.
- Shiyi Zhang
- , Andrew M. Bellinger
- & Giovanni Traverso
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Article |
Fluctuation-driven mechanotransduction regulates mitochondrial-network structure and function
Vascular smooth muscle cells can harness fluctuations in external cyclic stretching by altering their cytoskeletal organization and the associated mitochondrial network.
- Erzsébet Bartolák-Suki
- , Jasmin Imsirovic
- & Béla Suki
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Editorial |
Mighty linkers
The versatility of DNA linkers as selective binders is accelerating the rational design of the assembly of nanoparticle crystals with unprecedented structural complexity.
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News & Views |
Flip-flop lattices
The structure of crystals made of DNA-bridged nanoparticles can be selectively switched between various lattices by reprogramming the DNA-mediated interactions between the nanoparticles.
- Erika Eiser
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News & Views |
Exploiting shape complementarity
Improved control over the shape of nanoparticles and the interactions between them allows the rational construction of intricate microscale assemblies.
- Jean-Philippe Sobczak
- & Hendrik Dietz
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Commentary |
DNA-linked superlattices get into shape
Advances in the control of the shape, bonding direction and valency of DNA-coated nanoparticles allow the synthesis of nanoparticle crystallites of ever increasing complexity.
- Bert Nickel
- & Tim Liedl
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Article |
Fractal heterogeneity in minimal matrix models of scars modulates stiff-niche stem-cell responses via nuclear exit of a mechanorepressor
A minimal matrix model of scars is shown to elicit scar-like phenotypes from mesenchymal stem cells and to exhibit less cell-to-cell noise than homogeneously stiff gels, owing to the slow nuclear exit of a scar-marker mechanorepressor.
- P. C. Dave P. Dingal
- , Andrew M. Bradshaw
- & Dennis E. Discher
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News & Views |
Enzymatically crosslinked scaffolds
Microgel particle precursors bearing peptide substrates for human enzymes crosslink in wound sites to produce bioactive scaffolds in situ that rapidly recruit cells and promote dermal healing.
- David W. Grainger
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News & Views |
Skin health monitoring
Ultrathin and conformal piezoelectric transducers enable high-resolution mapping of the mechanical properties of human skin.
- Stéphanie P. Lacour
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Letter |
Dynamic polymer systems with self-regulated secretion for the control of surface properties and material healing
Dynamic liquid exchanges in a supramolecular polymer-gel matrix with liquid-storage compartments and a thin liquid layer on top lead to self-healing properties and controllable secretion kinetics.
- Jiaxi Cui
- , Daniel Daniel
- & Joanna Aizenberg
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Letter |
Liquid-crystalline ordering of antimicrobial peptide–DNA complexes controls TLR9 activation
Liquid-crystalline arrangements of complexes of DNA and antimicrobial peptides can lead to multivalent electrostatic interactions that drastically amplify TLR9-mediated immune responses.
- Nathan W. Schmidt
- , Fan Jin
- & Gerard C. L. Wong
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Letter |
Memoryless self-reinforcing directionality in endosomal active transport within living cells
A general memoryless molecular mechanism explains the self-organization of Brownian-like steps into truncated Lévy walks in the classic system of intracellular trafficking.
- Kejia Chen
- , Bo Wang
- & Steve Granick
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News & Views |
Folding creases through bending
The folding of origami structures involves bending deformations that are not explicit in the crease pattern.
- Talal Al-Mulla
- & Markus J. Buehler
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News & Views |
Negative refraction of sound
Porous rubber microbeads suspended in a gel are found to exhibit a negative acoustic index of refraction, which makes these metamaterials promising for underwater acoustic applications.
- Bogdan-Ioan Popa
- & Steven A. Cummer
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Letter |
Origami structures with a critical transition to bistability arising from hidden degrees of freedom
The square-twist origami structure, believed to have a non-foldable crease pattern, is now shown to be foldable through bending deformations that are not explicit in the pattern and that lead to a transition between mechanical mono- and bistability.
- Jesse L. Silverberg
- , Jun-Hee Na
- & Itai Cohen
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Letter |
Solid friction between soft filaments
Soft filamentous bundles, including F-actin, microtubules or bacterial flagella, can experience large frictional forces that scale logarithmically with sliding velocity, and such frictional coupling can be tuned by modifying lateral interfilament interactions.
- Andrew Ward
- , Feodor Hilitski
- & Zvonimir Dogic
Hydrogels with tunable stress relaxation regulate stem cell fate and activity
Fast crystal patterning
Correcting errors in self-assembly
Hauling atomic-size loads
Forceful growth
Could polythene clothes be cool?
Concrete mixing for gorillas
Self-propelled droplets
Programmable competitive binding