Mechanoresponsive materials are a topic of intense research across numerous disciplines. In biology, research on biogenic materials has revealed crucial links between specific protein building blocks and dynamic mechanical behaviors, while studies of biological tissues have identified sophisticated mechanotranduction mechanisms in cells for sensing their environment. Along similar lines, chemists and materials scientists are developing high-performance materials that exhibit specific programmed responses to mechanical stimuli (e.g. self-reporting and self-healing). Common to these diverse lines of research is a primary drive to understand dynamic responses of complex molecules to mechanical stimuli.
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