{"688356":{"#nid":"688356","#data":{"type":"external_news","title":"These synthetic polymers can grow, shrink, heal, and reshape themselves like living tissue","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EUntil now, no one had built a synthetic material that could simultaneously absorb chemical building blocks, polymerize them into its own network, relieve the mechanical stresses that accumulate during the process, and reverse the whole sequence on demand. A new study published in\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003EAdvanced Materials\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/em\u003E(\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/dx.doi.org\/doi:10.1002\/adma.202518567\u0022\u003E\u0022Rewriting Polymer Fate via Chemomechanical Coupling\u0022\u003C\/a\u003E) reports a polymer platform that accomplishes exactly that. A team at the Georgia Institute of Technology including Associate Professor\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/chemistry.gatech.edu\/people\/will-gutekunst\u0022\u003EWill Gutekunst\u003C\/a\u003E of the\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/chemistry.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ESchool of Chemistry and Biochemistry\u003C\/a\u003E, with collaborators at North Carolina State University, created what they call a \u0022living\u0022 polymer: a material that can grow, shrink, heal, change its stiffness by roughly 100-fold, and be recycled back to raw monomers, all post-fabrication.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EUntil now, no one had built a synthetic material that could simultaneously absorb chemical building blocks, polymerize them into its own network, relieve the mechanical stresses that accumulate during the process, and reverse the whole sequence on demand. A new study published in\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003EAdvanced Materials\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/em\u003E(\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/dx.doi.org\/doi:10.1002\/adma.202518567\u0022\u003E\u0022Rewriting Polymer Fate via Chemomechanical Coupling\u0022\u003C\/a\u003E) reports a polymer platform that accomplishes exactly that. A team at the Georgia Institute of Technology including Associate Professor\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/chemistry.gatech.edu\/people\/will-gutekunst\u0022\u003EWill Gutekunst\u003C\/a\u003E of the\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/chemistry.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ESchool of Chemistry and Biochemistry\u003C\/a\u003E, with collaborators at North Carolina State University, created what they call a \u0022living\u0022 polymer: a material that can grow, shrink, heal, change its stiffness by roughly 100-fold, and be recycled back to raw monomers, all post-fabrication.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":"","uid":"36583","created_gmt":"2026-02-17 21:45:28","changed_gmt":"2026-02-18 15:58:02","author":"lvidal7","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","publication":"Nanowerk News","field_article_url":"","publication_url":"https:\/\/www.nanowerk.com\/spotlight\/spotid=68674.php","dateline":{"date":"2026-02-12T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2026-02-12T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"groups":[{"id":"1278","name":"College of Sciences"},{"id":"85951","name":"School of Chemistry and Biochemistry"}],"categories":[{"id":"141","name":"Chemistry and Chemical Engineering"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"},{"id":"134","name":"Student and Faculty"}],"keywords":[{"id":"4896","name":"College of Sciences"},{"id":"170931","name":"synthetic polymer"},{"id":"166928","name":"School of Chemistry and Biochemistry"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}