• From grain to gear: Rice powers adaptive robots and impact-resistant equipment Rice grains inspire metamaterials that adapt automatically to pressure, enabling soft robotics and smart protective gear. • Rice could soon be more than just a staple food. • Researchers have discovered that packed rice grains change their strength depending on how fast they are compressed. • This property is being used to design new metamaterials-engineered composites that behave in ways impossible for natural materials. • When rice is compressed slowly, it holds its strength. • Compressed quickly, it weakens, a phenomenon called rate softening.

Article Summaries:

  • Researchers have discovered that rice grains exhibit “rate‑softening”: they maintain strength under slow compression but weaken when compressed quickly due to reduced inter‑grain friction. By combining rice with granular materials that stiffen under rapid loads, scientists created composites that automatically change stiffness without electronics. These physics‑driven metamaterials can bend, buckle, or stiffen in response to load speed, offering potential applications in soft robotics-lighter, safer machines that adapt to human touch or harsh environments-and in wearable protective gear that absorbs impact energy differently depending on shock speed. The study, published in Matter, highlights how everyday granular matter can be engineered into adaptive, self‑regulating systems.

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