Oddly Satisfying Metamaterials: Flexible Domes

When pressing on dimpled circles on a fountain drink lid, they become either convex or concave. This demonstrates bistability: materials or structures that have two stable states. Prof. Andres Arrieta, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue University, has demonstrated a patterned sheet of these domes that forms an energy-storing skin, strong enough to perform mechanical tasks, and even programmable to store and process data like a mechanical computer.