Researchers have created tiny building blocks that exhibit unique mechanical properties, such as the ability to produce a twisting motion when squeezed. These subunits could potentially be assembled ...

In my August 2021 column, I introduced the composites building block approach as a step-by-step series of mechanical tests of increasing complexity, coupled with analyses performed at each step, that ...

Self-assembly exists across domains, from colloidal particles in material science to fire ants assembling themselves into rafts during floods. The rules that govern self-assembly between these ...

When 23-year-old Wang Jihua spent 260 yuan ($37.3) on a mortise-and-tenon toy building block recreating Xi'an's Bell Tower (Northwest China's Shaanxi Province), he said that he was not just buying a ...

Researchers at MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms have created tiny building blocks that exhibit a variety of unique mechanical properties, such as the ability to produce a twisting motion when squeezed.