BBC: Shape-shifting materials typically require an external trigger to initiate the shape change. Now Sergei Sheiko of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his colleagues have developed a polymer in which the transformation occurs at a predetermined time with no outside stimuli necessary. The researchers created a polymer with two types of chemical bonds: permanent and dynamic. The permanent bonds define the material’s final shape; the dynamic bonds control how quickly the material can reach that shape, depending on the strength and concentration of the bonds. The timing precision is limited to a scale of minutes to hours, but that may be sufficient for the material to be used for applications such as drug delivery.
Despite the tumultuous history of the near-Earth object’s parent body, water may have been preserved in the asteroid for about a billion years.
October 08, 2025 08:50 PM
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Physics Today - The Week in Physics
The Week in Physics" is likely a reference to the regular updates or summaries of new physics research, such as those found in publications like Physics Today from AIP Publishing or on news aggregators like Phys.org.