For example, if you punch a bag full of water (like you would carry for hiking), the water within it will flow away from the point of impact. If the bag were full of an auxetic foam when you punched ...

More recently, my group is now looking at healthcare. We're working, for example, with a team of surgeons to develop an expandable device for laparoscopic surgery based on auxetic principles. I think ...

Most materials get thinner when stretched. Take a rubber band, stretch it along its length, and it will shrink in the other two directions, getting narrower and thinner as you pull. But there are ...

Auxetics defy common sense, widening when stretched and narrowing when compressed. NIST researchers have now made the process of using them much easier. Such common-sense-defying materials do exist.

Such common-sense-defying materials do exist. They’re called auxetics, and they have a raft of unique properties that make them well-suited for sneaker insoles, bomb-resilient buildings, car bumpers ...