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April 15, 2005

Plastic that changes shape with light

Filed under: All, Tech, Projects, Human, Current Events

By David Pescovitz

David Pescovitz:
Shape memory alloy, materials that change shape based on a temperature
increase, are old news for roboticists. But MIT scientists have
developed a new plastic that shapeshifts in response to light. From the
MIT News Office:

Images Images Newsoffice 2005 Smart-Plastic-EnlargedThese
programmed materials change shape when struck by light at certain
wavelengths and return to their original shapes when exposed to light
of specific different wavelengths.

The discovery, to be reported in the April 14 issue of Nature,
could have potential applications in a variety of fields, including
minimally invasive surgery. Imagine, for example, a “string” of plastic
that a doctor could thread into the body through a tiny incision. When
activated by light via a fiber-optic probe, that slender string might
change into a corkscrew-shaped stent for keeping blood vessels open.

Link

[Via BoingBoing]

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