A prototype rooftop collector focuses solar rays into a set of half - inch - wide polymer fibers that are capped in heat - resistant quartz. (discovermagazine.com)
Faced with a U.S. Department of Defense charge to manipulate well - known materials in new ways, Alan Jacobsen, a research scientist at HRL Laboratories in California, constructed delicate lattices of polymer fibers less than a millimeter thick. (discovermagazine.com)
If coiling is in a different twist direction than the initial polymer fiber twist, the muscles instead expand when heated. (sciencedaily.com)