Normally you can rely on solid objects to hold their shape: aeroplane wings are skinny teardrops, paper is flat and chairs are good for sitting on. But the US air force has found a way to change that. They have made flat surfaces pop into complex 3D shapes when heated – an ability that could find uses in fields from medicine to flight.
"Think of an antenna that changes its radiation properties depending on its shape, or morphing wings where the shape dictates the function," says Taylor Ware at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. Although confined to the lab for now, the technique has the potential to make shape-shifting objects
a part of normal life.