Smart materials

If you thought materials science was mostly about lifeless lumps of metal, think again. Thanks to the rapid development of smart materials over the past two decades, the discipline has really got moving, literally. From colour-changing materials and shape memory textiles to morphing aircraft wings and drug-delivering polymers, what sets these materials apart from your everyday metal, ceramic or polymer, is an ability to respond ´intelligently´ to the environment. It all kicked off with a quite remarkable snow-ski in the 1990s.