Local rules for fabricating allosteric networks

Understand

Mechanical properties of disordered networks can be significantly tailored by modifying a small fraction of their bonds.

• This procedure has been used to design and build mechanical metamaterials with a variety of responses.
• A long-range 'allosteric' response, where a localized input strain at one site gives rise to a localized output strain at a distant site, has been of particular interest.
• This work presents a novel approach to incorporating allosteric responses in experimental systems by pruning disordered networks $\textit{in-situ}$.