It Took 40 Years for Technology To Catch Up to This Revolutionary Zipper Design

A decades-old patent from MIT Professor Bill Freeman inspired the new “Y-zipper,” a three-sided fastener that can snap gear, robots, and art into shape with the push of a button. Long before shape-shifting robots and self-assembling structures became engineering goals, one MIT professor had already imagined a zipper that could transform floppy materials into rigid [...]