3D printing has already transformed manufacturing, healthcare, engineering, and product development. Now, researchers are ...

New 4D hydrogels — 3D materials that have the ability to change shape over time in response to stimuli — may lead to the development of human tissues, and even organs, that are more like their natural ...

The first time I wrote about MIT's Skylar Tibbits and what he calls 4D printing, I refused to use that term. It seemed pretentious and, well, dishonest. Self-assembly meets 3D printing was more ...

The concept of 4D printing isn't a new idea, but processes that use new types of environmental stimuli keep on appearing. 4D printing is usually defined as 3D printing with materials that change shape ...

Enter 4-D materials, which are like 3-D materials, but they change shape when they are exposed to specific environmental cues, such as light or water. These materials have been eyed by biomedical ...

During the early stages of life, organs do not just appear in their final form. They take shape through a process of controlled bending, twisting, and folding. These changes help cells organize into ...

Shape-memory polymers or shape-shifting materials are smart materials that have gained significant attention within materials science and biomedical engineering in recent years to build smart ...

New cell-laden bioink, comprised of tightly-packed, flake-shaped microgels and living cells, the production of cell-rich 4D bioconstructs that can change shape under physiological conditions. Where ...

A new study describes 3D printing of Shape Memory Polymers to produce active meta-materials that can be programmed to form versatile shapes and are then able to recover their original state when ...

New hydrogel-based materials that can change shape in response to psychological stimuli, such as water, could be the next generation of materials used to bioengineer tissues and organs, according to a ...