From Soft to Solid: How a Coral Stiffens Its Skeleton on Demand

Touch the branches of Leptogorgia chilensis, a soft coral found along the Pacific coast from California to Chile, and its flexible arms stiffen, like Marvel’s Mr. Fantastic warding off a foe. Now, Penn Engineers have discovered the mechanism underlying this astonishing ability, one that could advance fields as varied as medicine, robotics and manufacturing. In […]