Skip to Content Skip to Content
  • Science & Technology
  • Researchers use a material’s ‘memory’ to encode unique physical properties

    A new study shows that, as materials age, they “remember” prior stresses and external forces, which scientists and engineers can then use to create new materials with unique properties.
    a series of four abstract and disordered patterns made of different geometric shapes
    Examples of disordered systems trained in this study, including (from left) a jammed packing of discs, a network based on jamming, a disordered holey sheet, and a random network based on triangular lattice. A new study shows that disordered systems like these can “remember” prior stressors, which researchers can then use to imbue the material with unique properties. (Image: Daniel Hexner, Andrea Liu, Sidney Nagel, and Nidhi Pashine)

    Recent Articles

  • More Articles
  • Women’s labor and political agency in Delhi
    Four women street vendors sell shoes and footwear on a Delhi street.

    Four women street vendors sell shoes and footwear on a Delhi street.

    (Image: Kannagi Khanna)

    Women’s labor and political agency in Delhi

    Rashi Sabherwal, a doctoral student in political science, explores how women engage politically in society in informal roles through her research in India.

    Sep 30, 2025