... While the substance may not literally be "intelligent," it is remarkably responsive. As detailed in a new study published in the journal Nature, the fluid, or "metafluid," is designed to have programmable compressibility, optical behavior, and viscosity. In a first for metafluids, it can even transition between Newtonian and non-Newtonian states. ...
Metamaterials are artificially engineered materials with rare properties that are, in the researchers' words, "determined by their structure rather than composition." ...
Unlike other metamaterials, whose building blocks are traditionally "arranged in fixed positions within a lattice structure," this latest creation is made of tiny rubber-like spheres suspended in an incompressible fluid, in this case silicon oil.
These spherical capsules are filled with air and, when subjected to enough pressure, will buckle. Collapsed, the capsules form a lens-like half-sphere. Leave them alone, and they retain their normal shape. This radically alters the fluid's properties: for example, the under-pressure half-spheres can allow light to focus and pass through, while the full spheres can block it. ...
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