Charles Goodyear discovered the vulcanization of natural rubber (NR) 170 years ago and transferred the gooey natural compound into the first representative of an entirely new class of materials; the elastomers. Thenceforth, NR was intensively explored and was used for countless products to date. All the more surprising, it was found recently that NR exhibits superior and unexpected properties whenever it is cross-linked to a degree smaller than 0.4% which is fairly below the commonly used 1%-2%. This article gives a brief overview on the exceptional properties of lightly cross-linked NR, named shape memory natural rubber (SMNR), including the cold programmable shape memory effect, storing of extremely large strain, energy and cold, and its capability to sense and memorize environmental parameters. (c) 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2016, 54, 1381-1388