Futurism – The Byte
By Frank Landymore
April 9, 2024
Harvard researchers have created what they’re characterizing as an “intelligent liquid” — or in more specific terms, a programmable fluid with a unique structure that allows it to radically alter its properties, in an intriguing development for the burgeoning field of metamaterials.
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.