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Chinese team creates ‘lifelike’ hydrogel that changes shape for smart devices

Chinese researchers have developed a “lifelike” shape-changing hydrogel they say could provide a platform for next-generation developments, such as flexible tissue engineering scaffolds, brain-computer interfaces…

By Samantha Johnson / October 6, 2026
Chinese researchers have developed a “lifelike” shape-changing hydrogel they say could provide a platform for next-generation developments, such as flexible tissue engineering scaffolds, brain-computer interfaces and humanlike robots.

Inspired by living organisms, the team created a light-triggered system called STERS, which uses liquid metal particles to generate slow, self-sustaining chemical reactions that allow a hydrogel to change its structure over time.

Capable of growing and changing alongside living tissues, this adaptive system could inspire next-generation biomedical materials and devices. It could also have broad implications in fields such as regenerative medicine and soft robotics, according to the researchers.

“This novel approach enables programmable, lifelike morphological evolution in hydrogels, spanning microscopic to macroscopic scales, minutes to weeks, and single to multiple transformation cycles,” the team said in a paper published in the peer-reviewed journal Matter on September 4.

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