
MIT Creates material that can remember its original shape - nefitty
https://techcrunch.com/2016/08/26/mits-shape-shifting-3d-printed-objects-could-improve-medicine-and-solar-power/
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IANAD
Would have been a better title if it named the material instead of making it
sound like a new concept.

Memory metal's been around since 1949: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shape-
memory_alloy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shape-memory_alloy)

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chinzsteel
Same thing. I don't understand what exactly is the difference?

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deutronium
Nitinol motors seem pretty cool, such as
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sscoMtJV0uY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sscoMtJV0uY)
as an example of shape memory metal

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amelius
> This could be hugely beneficial in applications like creating drugs that can
> lie dormant until it detects a change in body temperature indicative of a
> fever, for instance

Could this drug be activated by e.g. a hot laptop sitting on your lap?

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pvaldes
To mess with fever's system designed to protect the body looks like a very bad
plan to me. A machine or a crocodile can afford to change its temperature by
many degrees and go unscathed. We, humans, need to be able to finely
termoregulate in a very narrow interval of temperature. Would make a 'cool'
sci-fi crime if you go for a beach day and a hidden drug puts your body to
30ºC while you are tanning. Or like a chemical chastity belt.

Moreover, animals aren't machines, they have a complex metabolism that would
inactivate, eliminate in the urine, modify, store, isolate or even create
noxious substances whereas trying to get rid of those drugs.

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bjd2385
I'm tired of hearing about every little thing MIT does. Good for you! Great!

