 In 2016 , Ahmad Rafsanjani described the use of Islamic geometric patterns from tomb towers in Iran to create auxetic materials from perforated rubber sheets . These are stable in either a contracted or an expanded state , and can switch between the two , which might be useful for surgical stents or for spacecraft components . When a conventional material is stretched along one axis , it contracts along other axes ( at right angles to the stretch ) . But auxetic materials expand at right angles to the pull . The internal structure that enables this unusual behaviour is inspired by two of the 70 Islamic patterns that Rafsanjani noted on the tomb towers . 
