A metamaterial that twists to right or the left in response to straight, solid push
(PHYSorg.com Physics)

(Phys.org)-A trio of researchers with Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany and Université de Bourgogne Franche-Comté in France has developed a metamaterial that twists either to the right or the left in response to a straight, solid push. In their paper published in the journal Science, Tobias Frenzel, Muamer Kadic, and Martin Wegener describe how they came up with the metamaterial and offer some ideas on the ways it might be put to use. Corentin Coulais with the University of Amsterdam offers a Perspective piece on the work done by the team (and some background on how linear elasticity applies to all materials and the foundation of solid mechanics) in the same journal issue.