Inspired by Nature, This Engineering Professor’s Designs Fold, Move and Morph

From self-folding chairs to self-planting seeds, UC Berkeley’s Morphing Matter Lab is transforming what's possible in engineering design with their biomimetic materials.

When rain falls on the seed of an Erodium flower, its coiled body unwinds, twists and buries itself into the soil. This movement — powered by nothing but water and stored potential energy — is the kind of natural intelligence that fascinates UC Berkeley mechanical engineering professor Lining Yao.

In this 101 in 101 video, which challenges Berkeley’s experts to condense their field of study into 101 seconds, Yao offers a crash course in “morphing matter” — materials and structures that transform in response to environmental stimuli.

Inspired by a childhood fascination with pine cones, whose scales “magically open up” when dry, she recalls, Yao now leads Berkeley’s Morphing Matter Lab, where researchers study how natural forces interact with materials and apply those insights to engineering design and emerging technologies.

The lab’s work spans both natural and synthetic materials, from 3D-printed thermoplastics that morph into chairs when heated, to wax paper that can self-fold, to liquid metal-epoxy polymers with the potential to power biofeedback devices. Their findings are published in engineering and computer science journals alike.

All of these innovations reflect what Yao calls “embodied intelligence,” or functionality that is encoded in a material itself rather than driven by software. “It could be a new way of designing a robot,” she says, “and a new way to think about engineering design.” 

For example, there’s the bio-mimetic seed pods invented in Yao’s lab that copy the self-planting spirals of the Erodium seed. These engineered seeds enable forest-replanting at scale when dropped over deforested or burned areas via drone.

To Yao, morphing matter is more than a scientific pursuit. “It’s a really interesting, intellectual playground,” she says — one that sits at the intersection of science, design and nature.

Watch more 101 in 101 videos featuring UC Berkeley faculty and experts here.