The concept of 4D printing isn't a new idea, but processes that use new types of environmental stimuli keep on appearing. 4D printing is usually defined as 3D printing with materials that change shape ...

Researchers at the University of Wollongong, Australia have created a 3D printer-compatible hydrogel that is mechanically tough and able to repeatedly change shape in response to water temperature.

Nowadays, 3D printing allows items to be created from a wide variety of materials — plastic, ceramic, glass, metal and even stranger ingredients such as chocolate and living cells. The machines work ...

Using a new technique known as 4D printing, researchers can print out dynamic 3D structures capable of changing their shapes over time. Such 4D-printed items could one day be used in everything from ...

With 4D printing, the objects can change shape or properties using external stimuli such as temperature, light, pH, magnetic field, electricity, and moisture. Additionally, the changes in shape or ...

During the early stages of life, organs do not just appear in their final form. They take shape through a process of controlled bending, twisting, and folding. These changes help cells organize into ...

Combining materials with different swelling ratios creates structures that transform into tubes when exposed to water. (Courtesy: Yu Bin Lee) Materials that controllably change shape over time – often ...

The first time I wrote about MIT's Skylar Tibbits and what he calls 4D printing, I refused to use that term. It seemed pretentious and, well, dishonest. Self-assembly meets 3D printing was more ...

Computer animation may be a lot better than it used to be, but it’s been around for quite a while. This is an example of one of the older bits, dating way back to 1965, and it features some 4D shapes.