MIT's Laser-Printed 'Metamaterial' Is Both Stretchy and Strong

Engineers at MIT have developed a material with a "double network" structure that makes it both stretchy and strong. Capable of stretching up to four times its default size without fully breaking, the material could someday find a place in flexible semiconductors, tear-resistant textiles, bioengineering scaffolds, and more.

The engineers' creation is considered a "metamaterial," or a synthetic material whose microscopic structures lend it unusual properties. In the past decade or so, scientists have used metamaterials to create the first large-scale invisibility cloak (à la Harry Potter) and to build a "physics-defying" superconductor with a higher-than-usual critical temperature. If it's a material that uses a tiny, internal framework to do something nature doesn't want it to do, it's probably a metamaterial.

According to a paper published Wednesday in Nature Materials, this particular metamaterial uses a sort of dual structure to take on multiple strengths at once. Both ...