Mechanical Metamaterial

New 'Mechanical Metamaterial' Expands When You Compress It, Shrinks When You Stretch It


Metamaterials research has generally focused on media with strange or unique electromagnetic properties, like the ability to bend light or sound in an unnatural way, but materials scientists at Northwestern University are experimenting with an entirely new kind of material with unique mechanical properties. A team there has designed materials with “negative compressibility”that in theory will compress when they are pulled and expand when they are compressed.