Shape Shifter

Newsweek, May, 2007

Building blocks that bend in light. Scientists have been looking for a material that can change shape when light is shined on it. Recently researchers at Kyushu University in Japan, writing in the journal Nature, created a crystal out of Y-shaped molecules. When fashioned into tiny rods, the molecules twist under ultraviolet light, making the rods bend. The material might come in handy for making microscopic valves and switches on spaceships.

Newsweek International