1) Stiffness is a key for advanced positional nano-fabrication.
2) For some fixed material stiffness falls with shrinking size.
So this Foam might prove quite useful for structural components in future nanofactories (and other advanced nanosystems).
The found foam is basically a superimposed union of
1) trivial cubic foam and
2) trivial octet foam (out of octahedrons and tetrahedrons)
nothing fancy - easy to model
Paper: "Mechanical metamaterials at the theoretical limit of isotropic elastic stiffness"
http://www.nature.com/nature/j…ent/full/nature21075.html
UCSB shortnews: https://materials.ucsb.edu/new…s-first-perform-predicted
UCSB news full article (linked): http://www.news.ucsb.edu/2017/017705/great-shape
UCSB news article with video (not linked): http://www.news.ucsb.edu/2015/015304/geometry-strength
Author: "... This material is found to archive theoretical bounds for isotropic stiffness. ..."
He's referring to something called the "Hashin-Shtrikman Bounds" of which probably few people know about.
http://subsurfwiki.org/wiki/Hashin%E2%80%93Shtrikman_bounds