New video from #The_Evidence_Says featuring our work on rice-based smart materials. A nice accessible story about everyday grains, unusual mechanics, and adaptive materials. Worth a watch — and do subscribe for more science stories: www.youtube.com/watch?v=9D4f... #SciComm #SmartMaterials

Scientists Turned Rice Into a Smart Material

YouTube video by The Evidence Says

youtube.com

🍂 New paper (JMPS, OA): Midveins control how drying leaves curl/fold. Soft lamina shrinks; stiff vein resists → stress → 3D shapes. Nonlinear, non-Euclidean mechanics—and bioinspiration for morphable materials. 🔗 doi.org/10.1016/j.jm... @unibirmingham.bsky.social #Leaf #Mechanics #Biomimetics

Glad to be part of this exciting project!

Jessica C. Huss@j2huss.bsky.social · 11mo ago

One day in the lab, we accidentally discovered that the spines of a cactus 🌵 straighten when exposed to fog. I was intrigued and so were my collaborators. How does this work and what can be gained from it? Here are some of the answers in our new preprint: doi.org/10.1101/2025...

🚀 Our tutorial on simulating nonlinear behaviors of flexible structures with the Discrete Differential Geometry (DDG) method is out in Applied Mechanics Reviews (ASME)! 📖 doi.org/10.1115/1.40... 🛠️ Code & demos: www.ddgflexsim.com 📰 UoB news: www.birmingham.ac.uk/news/2025/co...

A tutorial on simulating nonlinear behaviors of flexible structures with the discrete differential geometry (DDG) method

Abstract. Flexible elastic structures, such as beams, rods, ribbons, plates, and shells, exhibit complex nonlinear dynamical behaviors that are central to a wide range of engineering and scientific ap...

doi.org

It was a great honour to receive the 𝗙𝗹𝗼𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝗔𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗢𝘂𝘁𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗘𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆-𝗖𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗿 𝗔𝗰𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗺𝗶𝗰 at the @unibirmingham.bsky.social 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱 𝗙𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀’ 𝗔𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱𝘀: birmingham.ac.uk/events/found... Grateful for all the support from everyone!

🚀 New in JMPS! Real-time navigation control of magnetic soft continuum robots (MSCRs) in confined lumens! 🧲🩺 ✅ Hard-magnetic elastic rod + DDG + contact ✅ Real-time inverse design of magnetic fields A step closer to clinical translation! 🔗 doi.org/10.1016/j.jm...

Grateful to have wrapped up an amazing week in Changsha last week — reconnecting with old friends, mentors, and making new ones. Honored to receive the #ICCES_Outstanding_Young_Researcher_Award! Thanks for all the memories and inspiring conversations — onward! 🚀 @unibirmingham.bsky.social

Honoured to be Highly Commended for #Outstanding_Impact_by_an_Early_Career_Researcher at the @unibirmingham.bsky.social Research Impact Awards 2025! Grateful for the support of my collaborators and students. Excited to keep pushing the boundaries of mechanics & robotic metamaterials.

Buckling normally happens when you compress something slender, but 'tug' on a piece of crumpled paper at two points and it also buckles. Read more about how this "localized-TUG folding" occurs in many systems at: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2423439122

Published this week in @pnas.org: A thin sheet folds deeply from a small, localized pull. No patterning, no compression — just geometry. We call it #TUG_Folding — a new instability with α ∝ ε³⁄⁴. 🔗https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2423439122 @mathobservatory.bsky.social @unibirmingham.bsky.social