Soft Matter doi:10.1039/b805434g (2008)

A polymer developed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio can move up and down as fast as a hummingbird's flapping wings when it is hit with laser light.

Timothy Bunning and his collaborators prepared a network of liquid crystal polymer containing azobenzene molecules, which act as linking groups. The bonds in these azo groups change reversibly from one geometrical form to another when exposed to ultraviolet laser light of a certain wavelength. This makes the polymer bend like a cantilever. As the laser's power is cranked up the cantilever moves faster. If polarizing laser light is shone on the cantilever, it moves through a different angle.