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On the Cover

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Multi-stimuli-responsive soft materials enable promising untethered smart actuators and sensors. In article number 2006191, Metin Sitti and co-workers develop a hybrid liquid-crystal elastomer with embedded ferromagnetic microparticles that responds to magnetic, thermal, and optical cues. Such a monolithic material enables reconfigurable environmentally sensitive miniature machines with physical intelligence. The patterned mesogens deform the material into 3D shapes, such as helices, upon actuation. The dual red and blue colors represent the material's magnetic responsiveness.

In article number 2007340, Frank Giesselmann and co-workers report the rational design of micellar lyotropic nematic gels by adding low-molecular-weight gelators to micellar lyotropic nematic phases. These new liquid-crystalline networks are promising materials for the field of water-based soft robotics and biomimetic actuation. The image shows the birefringent texture of a lyotropic nematic gel seen in a polarizing optical microscope.

Graphene and graphite are black and pure diamonds are colorless to the human eye; however, single-wall carbon nanotubes are colorful. In article number 2006395, Esko I. Kauppinen and co-workers explain experimentally how these stable colors of carbon nanotubes form, and also demonstrate their brilliance and range. It is surprising that these molecules of pure carbon, like gems, can exhibit a full spectrum of strong and vivid colors.

In article number 2004830, Robert Streubel and co-workers report the formation of topological magnetization vector fields in disordered materials with local inversion symmetry breaking, harnessing high-resolution Lorentz microscopy, quantitative X-ray microspectros copy, and coherent scattering. The image shows the reconstructed in-plane magnetic induction of closely packed Bloch skyrmions embedded into helical spins.

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