Anisotropic

When we talk about things being anisotropic, we mean that they behave differently in different directions. Imagine if you had a piece of play dough and you tried squishing it with your hands from different angles. Depending on how you squished it, the play dough might squish out more in one direction and less in others. This is kind of like how anisotropic materials behave, they might stretch or shrink more in one direction than another depending on how they're being pulled or pushed. Scientists use anisotropic materials a lot in things like optics (which helps us see things), electronics (which makes our devices work), and even in materials science (which helps scientists figure out how to make things stronger or more useful).