A Zipper Patent Sat in a Garage for 40 Years. Now It's Real

I suggest reading the original linked article, if only because it includes a video with the zipper in action:

https://news.mit.edu/2026/three-sided-y-zipper-design-0504

It brings to mind satellites assembling themselves in space. Send up a tightly packed box of spaghetti and extrude it into the desired physical shape upon arrival in orbit. For increased rigidity, paint with a solar pumped laser to weld the links together.

Just sell me the tent already!

This makes me think of microtubules.

Meanwhile over at YKK Japan...

The zipper is getting its first major upgrade in 100 years (2025)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45634797

> ... the Y-Zipper, a 3D-printed, three-sided fastener that can snap a floppy, flexible structure into a rigid, load-bearing beam with one smooth pull.

Not a mechanical engineer, but I'd figure both the "rigid" and "load-bearing" aspects will be far poorer than conventional beams of the same size and weight.

This reads like it’s been machine generated.