What Is: Metamaterials

Scientific Frontline: Extended "At a Glance" Summary: Metamaterials

The Core Concept: A metamaterial is an artificially engineered composite whose extraordinary physical properties are derived from its meticulously designed, repeating subwavelength internal geometry rather than its base chemistry.

Key Distinction/Mechanism: Unlike natural materials governed by molecular or atomic composition, metamaterials utilize macroscopic "meta-atoms," such as split-ring resonators or Helmholtz cavities, to manipulate waves. Through induced resonances, they can achieve anomalous parameters strictly absent in nature, including simultaneously negative permittivity, permeability, mass density, and bulk modulus.

Origin/History: Theoretical foundations for "double-negative" media were mathematically proposed by Victor Veselago in 1967. The first functional left-handed metamaterial was experimentally realized around the year 2000 through the theoretical frameworks of John B. Pendry and the experimental work of David R. Smith, Sheldon Schultz, and Richard A. Shelby.

Major Frameworks/Components:

• Electromagnetic Material Classification: The categorization of media into Double Positive, Epsilon Negative, Mu Negative, and Double Negative based on their real effective permittivity (\(\epsilon\)) and permeability (\(\mu\)).
• Engineered Permittivity: The use of continuous wire arrays and complex plasma wavenumber (\(k_p\)) models to depress the plasma frequency into the microwave range.
• Acoustic Metamaterials: The subversion of the traditional mass-frequency law to achieve negative effective mass density (\(\rho\)) and negative bulk modulus (\(B\)) using localized resonances.
• Topological Metamaterials: The mapping of solid-state physics concepts, such as topological insulators and Dirac cone degeneracies, onto classical bosonic wave equations to create defect-immune energy routing.
• Transformation Optics: The use of optical conformal mapping and Jacobian matrices to compress and stretch virtual coordinate space, forming the mathematical basis for invisibility cloaking.
• Macro-Scale Adaptations: The upscaling of periodic bandgap and local hybridization principles into seismic and forest metamaterials to mitigate low-frequency earthquake waves.

Optical Nonreciprocity in Nanoclusters

Researchers in the Robinson Group conduct optical property characterization of complex chiral and linear anisotropic films made from hybrid magic-size clusters.
Photo Credit: Allison Usavage/Duffield Engineering

Scientific Frontline: Extended "At a Glance" Summary: Optical Nonreciprocity in Semiconductor Nanoclusters

The Core Concept: Researchers have successfully broken optical symmetry, engineering simple semiconductor materials to exhibit nonreciprocal absorption and emission of linearly polarized light depending on the direction of entry.

Key Distinction/Mechanism: Unlike traditional optical reciprocity where systems respond identically from either side, or previous nonreciprocal systems requiring complex metamaterials or external magnetic fields, this approach leverages the simultaneous presence of strong linear and chiral dichroism within self-assembled nanoclusters to achieve directional asymmetry.

Major Frameworks/Components:

• Magic-Size Clusters: Nanomaterials that self-assemble into highly organized spiral structures to produce light-bending thin films.
• Dual Dichroism: The unique structural arrangement allows the material to interact intensely with both linear (straight line) and circular (corkscrew) polarized light at the same time.
• Semiconductor Composition: The directional asymmetry phenomenon was successfully demonstrated using films constructed from cadmium sulfide, cadmium selenide, and cadmium telluride.

Bio-Inspired Mechano-Fluidic Metamaterials

Euplectella aspergillum
Photo Credit: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Scientific Frontline: Extended "At a Glance" Summary: Bio-Inspired Mechano-Fluidic Metamaterials

The Core Concept: Bio-inspired mechano-fluidic metamaterials are artificially engineered structures designed to simultaneously optimize load-bearing mechanical strength and smooth fluid flow dynamics.

Key Distinction/Mechanism: Unlike traditional materials that prioritize either structural rigidity or fluidic efficiency, these metamaterials utilize an intricate lattice geometry to balance both. By incorporating specific porosities—such as a 5% open area—the design guides fluid through and around the structure to suppress vortex-induced vibrations while increasing the buckling load capacity by approximately 140% compared to random structures.

Major Frameworks/Components:

• Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD): High-fidelity simulations utilized to predict flow behavior, mitigate mechanical stress, and prevent vortex shedding.
• Finite Element Analysis (FEA): Computational models used to assess structural mechanics, physical rigidity, and force thresholds before material failure.
• Multi-Objective Optimization: An automated, high-performance computing framework that repeatedly simulates and refines geometrical designs to reconcile the competing demands of fluid dynamics and structural mechanics.
• Biomimetic Lattice Architecture: A 3D-printed, geometrically complex structure directly modeled after the biological survival mechanisms of deep-sea organisms.

3D Thermal Cloaking: Hiding Objects From Heat

U. of I. engineers introduce a 3D-printed, hybrid aluminum-and-rubber cloaking device that blocks an object’s thermal signature by guiding heat around it, rendering it invisible to infrared cameras.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Scientific Frontline: Extended "At a Glance" Summary: 3D Thermal Cloaking

The Core Concept: A novel, hybrid aluminum-and-rubber device that renders three-dimensional objects invisible to infrared cameras by actively guiding heat around them from any direction.

Key Distinction/Mechanism: Unlike previous thermal cloaks limited to two dimensions or a single direction of heat flow, this omnidirectional device utilizes an adjustable, lattice-based material structure. It consists of a 3D-printed aluminum lattice that acts as a high-conductivity medium, which is filled with a mold-cast, rubber-like material that has low thermal conductivity. This precise combination forces heat to bypass the hidden object entirely, leaving the internal temperature uniform and protected from external extremes..

Major Frameworks/Components: 

• Transformation Thermotics: The foundational theoretical framework used to calculate the exact material structures and spatial thermal properties required to achieve a perfect cloaking effect.
• Lattice-Based Metamaterials: A freely adjustable three-dimensional structural design that can be tuned to cover a much wider range of thermal conductivities than previous approaches, matching theoretical cloaking requirements.

3D Load-Bearing Origami Metamaterials

The researchers say their work could advance the development of such foldable objects as temporary emergency tents and wearable exoskeletons.
Image Credit: Morad Mirzajanzadeh.

Scientific Frontline: Extended "At a Glance" Summary: Reprogrammable Doubly Curved Origami Metamaterials

The Core Concept: A novel metamaterial design that transforms flat sheets into smooth, doubly curved 3D shells capable of switching from flexible to rigid load-bearing states on demand.

Key Distinction/Mechanism: Unlike traditional origami, which faces a structural trade-off between smooth curvature (resulting in soft structures) and rigid strength (resulting in jagged, faceted shapes), this method uses curved creases combined with embedded, adjustable cables (tendons). Modifying the tension of these cables allows the material’s stiffness to be reprogrammed without altering its overarching shape or base materials.

Origin/History: While origami-inspired structural design has previously enabled complex shape transformations and tunable stiffness in mechanical metamaterials (Wang et al., 2023), early rigid origami patterns frequently struggled to balance simple deployability with robust resistance against collapse under load (Zhai et al., 2018). Building on these foundations to overcome such limitations, McGill University researchers Damiano Pasini and Morad Mirzajanzadeh introduced this novel curved-crease paradigm, publishing their findings in February 2026.

Zirconium Nanomaterial for Energy Accumulators

Anatoly Zatsepin, Head of UrFU Laboratory of Hybrid Technologies and Metamaterials
 Photo Credit: UrFU press service

Scientific Frontline: Extended "At a Glance" Summary: Zirconium Dioxide Functional Nanomaterial

The Core Concept: A novel, ultra-low voltage compact capacitor crafted from a zirconium dioxide nanopowder that functions as a highly efficient energy accumulator.

Key Distinction/Mechanism: Unlike classical compact capacitors that fail due to tunneling leakage currents when scaled down, this new device relies on the tunneling effect of electron localization near a charged dielectric surface. It effectively reverses a conventional supercapacitor by utilizing a dielectric material that conducts current via quantum effects, rather than relying on standard carbon electrodes.

Major Frameworks/Components:

• Zirconium Dioxide Nanopowder: Provides a massive surface area, making the material sensitive enough to detect individual molecules.
• Dielectric Electrode Modification: Replaces traditional carbon electrodes with a naturally non-conducting dielectric that operates through quantum properties.
• Solid-State Ionic Framework: Enables stable, functional energy storage at ultra-low voltages.
• Quantum Tunneling Localization: Utilizes specific electron localization to bypass the tunneling breakdown limitations of classical capacitor design.

Researchers Demonstrate How Magnets Influence Behavior of Metamaterials

Photo Credit: Haoze Sun

Scientific Frontline: Extended "At a Glance" Summary: Magnetized Metamaterial Behavior

The Core Concept: By incorporating magnetic elements into geometrically patterned elastic polymers, researchers can precisely control the sequence in which the material's intricate structures unfold or "snap" open under stress.

Key Distinction/Mechanism: While traditional, unmagnetized metamaterial meshes pop open simultaneously when stretched, magnetized versions snap open sequentially, row by row, as magnetic attraction resists the pulling force. Furthermore, layering two magnetized sheets so their fields repel forces a highly predictable, top-to-bottom snapping sequence, overriding the random unfolding

Major Frameworks/Components: 

• Kirigami-Inspired Architecture: The use of specific geometric cuts (such as T-patterns) in soft polymer sheets to alter their fundamental mechanical properties.
• Magneto-Elastic Coupling: The physical interplay between the mechanical force of applied stretching and the internal magnetic attraction resisting that separation.
• Sequential Buckling Instabilities: The controlled, step-by-step mechanical yielding and snapping of the material's distinct structural rows.

Making an ‘acoustic tractor beam’: Showing how sound can remotely reprogram material stiffness

A research team including members from the University of Michigan showed how “kinks” within a material could be moved using acoustic waves. This could lead to materials whose softness or firmness are tuned on the fly using vibrations.
Image credit: K. Qian et al. Nature Communications, 2026. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-68688-7

Scientific Frontline: "At a Glance" Summary: Remote Acoustic Reprogramming of Material Stiffness

• Main Discovery: Researchers demonstrated that specific frequencies of acoustic waves can reliably move localized structural boundaries known as mechanical kinks within metamaterials, enabling remote and precise control over a material's internal softness and stiffness.
• Methodology: The research team combined theoretical, computational, and physical modeling to validate the mechanism. The physical experiment utilized a macroscopic chain of stacked, rotating disks connected by springs to simulate atoms and atomic bonds, with one uniquely aligned disk serving as the target mechanical kink to be manipulated by sound.
• Key Data: Experimental models showed that short acoustic pulses pulled the mechanical kink toward the sound source a few disks at a time. Applying longer, continuous vibrations successfully pulled the kink across the entire chain length, fully reversing the material's structural stiffness profile on demand.
• Significance: The study overcomes prior limitations where the acoustic manipulation of material kinks resulted in chaotic, unpredictable movement. By utilizing engineered metamaterials lacking internal energy barriers, researchers achieved stable, predictable, and energy-efficient remote control of internal material states.
• Future Application: This conceptual breakthrough provides a foundation for dynamically adaptable smart materials, allowing future structures and technologies to continuously reprogram their physical configurations and stiffness gradients on the fly without requiring physical intrusion, cutting, or reconstruction.
• Branch of Science: Materials Science, Acoustics, and Physics.

Metamaterials can stifle vibrations with intentional complexity

This 3-D printed “kagome tube” can passively isolate vibrations using its complex, but deliberate, structure.
Image Credit: James McInerney, Air Force Research Laboratory

Scientific Frontline: Extended "At a Glance" Summary: Mechanical Metamaterials and Vibration Isolation

The Core Concept: Mechanical metamaterials are engineered structures whose complex internal geometries, rather than their chemical composition, allow them to manipulate physical properties like vibration suppression. Researchers have successfully utilized 3D printing to create "kagome tube" structures capable of passively impeding the transmission of mechanical vibrations.

Key Distinction/Mechanism: Unlike traditional materials that rely on inherent chemical properties, metamaterials derive functionality from their precise, architected lattice structures. These specific geometric patterns can block vibrations through topological polarization, effectively forcing energy to dissipate or be diverted within the material's framework.

Origin/History: The concept builds upon 19th-century Maxwell lattices, which explored stable structural subunits, and later 20th-century developments in topology. Recent advancements in high-precision 3D printing have finally enabled the physical realization of these theoretically complex designs.

Major Frameworks/Components:

• Kagome Tubes: A complex structural design inspired by traditional Japanese basket weaving, utilized to maximize vibration-damping efficiency.
• Topological Phase: The application of topological principles to lattice structures to create unique boundaries that inhibit energy movement.
• Additive Manufacturing: The use of 3D printing technology to fabricate intricate nylon lattices with high geometric precision.
• Structural Optimization: The ongoing study of the mechanical tradeoff between high-performance vibration suppression and the structural load-bearing capacity of the material.

‘Chinese Lantern’ Structure Shifts into More Than a Dozen Shapes for Various Applications

Image Credit: Yaoye Hong

Researchers have created a polymer “Chinese lantern” that can snap into more than a dozen curved, three-dimensional shapes by compressing or twisting the original structure. This rapid shape-shifting behavior can be controlled remotely using a magnetic field, allowing the structure to be used for a variety of applications.

The basic lantern object is made by cutting a polymer sheet into a diamond-like parallelogram shape, then cutting a row of parallel lines across the center of each sheet. This creates a row of identical ribbons that is connected by a solid strip of material at the top and bottom of the sheet. By connecting the left and right ends of the solid strips at top and bottom, the polymer sheet forms a three-dimensional shape resembling a roughly spherical Chinese lantern.

Light-powered motor fits inside a strand of hair

The second gear from the right has an optical metamaterial that react to laserlight and makes the gear move. All gears are made in silica directly on a chip. Each gear is about 0.016 mm in diameter.
Photo Credit: Gan Wang

Researchers at the University of Gothenburg have made light-powered gears on a micrometer scale. This paves the way for the smallest on-chip motors in history, which can fit inside a strand of hair.

Gears are everywhere – from clocks and cars to robots and wind turbines. For more than 30 years, researchers have been trying to create even smaller gears in order to construct micro-engines. But progress stalled at 0.1 millimeters, as it was not possible to build the drive trains needed to make them move any smaller.

Researchers from Gothenburg University, among others, have now broken through this barrier by ditching traditional mechanical drive trains and instead using laser light to set the gears in motion directly.

Rice-engineered material can reconnect severed nerves

Rice University doctoral alum Joshua Chen is lead author on a study published in Nature Materials.
 Photo Credit: Gustavo Raskosky/Rice University

Scientific Frontline: Extended "At a Glance" Summary: Magnetoelectric Metamaterials for Neural Stimulation

The Core Concept: Researchers have engineered a novel, nonlinear magnetoelectric metamaterial capable of converting magnetic fields into electric fields 120 times faster than previously developed materials, offering a minimally invasive way to stimulate neural tissue.

Key Distinction/Mechanism: Unlike traditional magnetoelectric materials that exhibit a linear relationship between electric and magnetic fields, this new material utilizes a nonlinear response. This enables the generation of precise, effective electric signals that neurons can reliably detect and respond to, overcoming the limitations of previous, faster, and more uniform signals.

Major Frameworks/Components:

• Material Composition: A sandwich structure consisting of a piezoelectric layer (lead zirconium titanate) between two magnetorestrictive layers (metallic glass alloys, or Metglas).
• Nonlinear Engineering: The integration of stacked platinum, hafnium oxide, and zinc oxide layers on the original film to create the necessary nonlinear response.
• Structural Optimization: A thin-film architecture of less than 200 nanometers, designed for future injectable applications.

Nanomaterials: glass printed sintered-free in 3D

The new process can be used to create a wide variety of quartz glass structures on a nanometer scale.
Full Size Image
 Image Credit: Dr. Jens Bauer, KIT

Process developed at KIT manages with relatively low temperatures and enables high resolutions for applications in optics and semiconductor technology - publication in science

Nanometer-fine structures made of quartz glass, which can be printed directly on semiconductor chips, are produced by a process developed at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). A hybrid organic-inorganic polymer resin serves as the starting material for the 3D printing of silicon dioxide. Since the process does not require sintering, the temperatures required for this are significantly lower. At the same time, a higher resolution enables nanophotonics with visible light. The research team reports in the journal Science.

Printing quartz glass consisting of pure silicon dioxide in micro and nanometer-fine structures opens up new possibilities for many applications in optics, photonics and semiconductor technology. So far, however, techniques based on traditional sintering have dominated. The temperatures required for sintering silicon dioxide nanoparticles are above 1,100 degrees Celsius - far too hot for direct separation on semiconductor chips. A research team led by Dr. Jens Bauer from the KIT's Institute for Nanotechnology (INT) has now developed a new process for producing transparent quartz glass with high resolution and excellent mechanical properties at significantly lower temperatures.

For the first time, controlling the degree of twist in nanostructured particles

An array of different growth conditions, spanning from left-handed twists made with only left-handed cystine to flat pancakes made with a 50-50 mix to right-handed twists made only with right-handed cystine. The ability to control the degree of twist in a curling, nanostructured material could be a useful new tool in chemistry and machine vision.
Image Credit: Prashant Kumar, Kotov Lab, University of Michigan.

Being able to decide not only whether a micron-scale particle twists but also how much could open new avenues for machine vision and more

Micron-sized “bow ties,” self-assembled from nanoparticles, form a variety of different curling shapes that can be precisely controlled, a research team led by the University of Michigan has shown.

The development opens the way for easily producing materials that interact with twisted light, providing new tools for machine vision and producing medicines.

While biology is full of twisted structures like DNA, known as chiral structures, the degree of twist is locked in—trying to change it breaks the structure. Now, researchers can engineer the degree of twist.

Such materials could enable robots to accurately navigate complex human environments. Twisted structures would encode information in the shapes of the light waves that reflect from the surface, rather than in the 2D arrangement of symbols that comprise most human-read signs. This would take advantage of an aspect of light that humans can barely sense, known as polarization. The twisted nanostructures preferentially reflect certain kinds of circularly polarized light, a shape that twists as it moves through space.

Organizing nanoparticles into pinwheel shapes offers new twist on engineered materials

Jiahui Li, left, Shan Zhou and professor Qian Chen show off an electron micrograph image of their new pinwheel lattice structure developed to help engineers build new materials with unique optical, magnetic, electronic and catalytic properties. 
Photo Credit: Fred Zwicky

Researchers have developed a new strategy to help build materials with unique optical, magnetic, electronic and catalytic properties. These pinwheel-shaped structures self-assemble from nanoparticles and exhibit a characteristic called chirality – one of nature’s strategies to build complexity into structures at all scales, from molecules to galaxies.

Nature is rich with examples of chirality – DNA, organic molecules and even human hands. In general, chirality can be seen in objects that can have more than one spatial arrangement. For example, chirality in molecules might present itself as two strings of atoms that have the same composition, but each having a “twist” to the left or right in their spatial orientations, the researchers said.

The new study, led by Qian Chen, a professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and Nicholas A. Kotov, a professor chemical engineering at the University of Michigan, extends chirality into lattices assembled from nanoparticle building blocks to create new metamaterials – materials designed to interact with their surroundings to perform specific functions.

The study is published in the journal Nature.

Ural Scientists Created Nanoparticle Growth Technology

The new material is suitable for solar cells, biosensors, and other systems working on quantum principles.
Photo credit: Vladimir Petrov

Scientific Frontline: Extended "At a Glance" Summary: Nanoparticle Growth Technology

The Core Concept: A novel synthesis technique that uses ion implantation to create nonspherical nanoparticles, allowing for precise control over their geometry and physical properties.

Key Distinction/Mechanism: Unlike traditional methods that typically yield spherical particles, this approach utilizes ion implantation into a ceramic matrix to synthesize nanoparticles of varying, controlled shapes, which significantly enhances plasmon resonance and optical absorption.

Major Frameworks/Components:

• Ion Implantation: The primary method for synthesizing nanoparticles within a radiation-resistant ceramic matrix.
• Surface Plasmon Resonance: An optical phenomenon where the particle shape influences an amplified electric field around the nanoparticle, improving energy conversion.
• Universal Mathematical Model: A new framework developed by the research team to describe and predict the growth of nonspherical nanoparticles.
• Plasmonic Metamaterials: Artificial, periodic structures engineered for specific optical, electronic, or magnetic responses.

Through the quantum looking glass

Green laser light illuminates a metasurface that is a hundred times thinner than paper, that was fabricated at the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies. CINT is jointly operated by Sandia and Los Alamos national laboratories for the Department of Energy Office of Science.
Photo credit: Craig Fritz

An ultrathin invention could make future computing, sensing and encryption technologies remarkably smaller and more powerful by helping scientists control a strange but useful phenomenon of quantum mechanics, according to new research recently published in the journal Science.

Scientists at Sandia National Laboratories and the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light have reported on a device that could replace a roomful of equipment to link photons in a bizarre quantum effect called entanglement. This device — a kind of nano-engineered material called a metasurface — paves the way for entangling photons in complex ways that have not been possible with compact technologies.

When scientists say photons are entangled, they mean they are linked in such a way that actions on one affect the other, no matter where or how far apart the photons are in the universe. It is an effect of quantum mechanics, the laws of physics that govern particles and other very tiny things.

Although the phenomenon might seem odd, scientists have harnessed it to process information in new ways. For example, entanglement helps protect delicate quantum information and correct errors in quantum computing, a field that could someday have sweeping impacts in national security, science and finance. Entanglement also enables new, advanced encryption methods for secure communication.

‘Beam-Steering’ Technology Takes Mobile Communications Beyond 5G

The beam-steering antenna technology has been developed to
increase the efficiency of fixed base station antenna at 5G (mmWave)
and 6G, and can also be adapted for vehicle-to-vehicle, vehicle-to-infrastructure,
vehicular radar, and satellite communications.
Credit: University of Birmingham

Birmingham scientists have revealed a new beam-steering antenna that increases the efficiency of data transmission for ‘beyond 5G’ – and opens up a range of frequencies for mobile communications that are inaccessible to currently used technologies.

Experimental results, presented today for the first time at the 3rd International Union of Radio Science Atlantic / Asia-Pacific Radio Science Meeting, show the device can provide continuous ‘wide-angle’ beam steering, allowing it to track a moving mobile phone user in the same way that a satellite dish turns to track a moving object, but with significantly enhanced speeds.

Devised by researchers from the University of Birmingham's School of Engineering, the technology has demonstrated vast improvements in data transmission efficiency at frequencies ranging across the millimeter wave spectrum, specifically those identified for 5G (mmWave) and 6G, where high efficiency is currently only achievable using slow, mechanically steered antenna solutions.

For 5G mmWave applications, prototypes of the beam-steering antenna at 26 GHz have shown unprecedented data transmission efficiency.

The device is fully compatible with existing 5G specifications that are currently used by mobile communications networks. Moreover, the new technology does not require the complex and inefficient feeding networks required for commonly deployed antenna systems, instead using a low complexity system which improves performance and is simple to fabricate.

Custom ‘Headphones’ Boost Atomic Radio Reception 100-Fold

Copper “headphones” boost the sensitivity of NIST’s atomic radio receiver, which is composed of a gas of cesium atoms prepared in a special state inside the glass container. When an antenna located above the setup sends down a radio signal, the headphones boost the strength of the received signal a hundredfold. 
Credit: NIST

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have boosted the sensitivity of their atomic radio receiver a hundredfold by enclosing the small glass cylinder of cesium atoms inside what looks like custom copper “headphones.”

The structure — a square overhead loop connecting two square panels — increases the incoming radio signal, or electric field, applied to the gaseous atoms in the flask (known as a vapor cell) between the panels. This enhancement enables the radio receiver to detect much weaker signals than before. The demonstration is described in a new paper in Applied Physics Letters.

The headphone structure is technically a split-ring resonator, which acts like a metamaterial — a material engineered with novel structures to produce unusual properties. “We can call it a metamaterials-inspired structure,” NIST project leader Chris Holloway said.

NIST researchers previously demonstrated the atom-based radio receiver. An atomic sensor has the potential to be physically smaller and work better in noisy environments than conventional radio receivers, among other possible advantages.

This Bizarre Looking Helmet Can Create Better Brain Scans

Ke Wu, a PhD student in BU’s department of mechanical engineering, demonstrates a new magnetic metamaterial device intended to be used in conjunction with MRI machines to boost the quality of brain scans.
Credit: Cydney Scott

It may look like a bizarre bike helmet, or a piece of equipment found in Doc Brown’s lab in Back to the Future, yet this gadget made of plastic and copper wire is a technological breakthrough with the potential to revolutionize medical imaging. Despite its playful look, the device is actually a metamaterial, packing in a ton of physics, engineering, and mathematical know-how.

It was developed by Xin Zhang, a College of Engineering professor of mechanical engineering, and her team of scientists at BU’s Photonics Center. They’re experts in metamaterials, a type of engineered structure created from small unit cells that might be unspectacular alone, but when grouped together in a precise way, get new superpowers not found in nature. Metamaterials, for instance, can bend, absorb, or manipulate waves—such as electromagnetic waves, sound waves, or radio waves. Each unit cell, also called a resonator, is typically arranged in a repeating pattern in rows and columns; they can be designed in different sizes and shapes, and placed at different orientations, depending on which waves they’re designed to influence.