Drying Beads Unlock the Secret of Tough Gels
A kitchen sponge squeezed in your fist springs back. But if you squeeze it slowly while letting it dry, it stays flattened. That's roughly what scientists did with tiny gel beads: they let them dry while compressing them, and watched what happened inside.
A gel is made of tiny particles that stick together into an open, lacy network, like cereal flakes in a bowl of milk.