World first: New polymer goes for a walk when illuminated

World first: New polymer goes for a walk when illuminated

http://ift.tt/2tlvEPk

Scientists have developed a new material that can undulate and therefore propel itself forward under the influence of light. To this end, they clamp a strip of this polymer material in a rectangular frame. When illuminated it goes for a walk all on its own. This small device, the size of a paperclip, is the world's first machine to convert light directly into walking, simply using one fixed light source. The researchers publish their findings in Nature.



Singularity

via http://ift.tt/orfraw

June 28, 2017 at 12:27PM

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

SpaceX successfully launches and lands a used rocket for the second time

Image
SpaceX successfully launches and lands a used rocket for the second time http://ift.tt/2tY2dQ6 SpaceX has successfully launched and landed a recycled Falcon 9 rocket for the second time. The rocket’s first stage — the 14-story-tall core that houses the fuel and the rocket’s main engines — touched down on one of the company’s autonomous drone ships in the Atlantic Ocean shortly after taking off from a launchpad at nearby Cape Canaveral, Florida. It’s the 12th time SpaceX has successfully landed one of these rocket stages, and the seventh time it’s performed the feat at sea. This particular rocket previously flew in January, when it was used to put 10 satellites into orbit for communications company Iridium. The rocket then landed on a drone ship in the Pacific Ocean. SpaceX retrieved the rocket and spent the next few months refurbishing it in preparation for today’s launch. The landing wasn’t easy, though. Because the rocket had to push BulgariaSat-1 to such a high orbit, the ...
Read more

New 3-D model predicts best planting practices for farmers

New 3-D model predicts best planting practices for farmers http://ift.tt/2t3Keus The University of Illinois and the Partner Institute for Computational Biology in Shanghai developed a computer model to predict the yield of different crop cultivars in a multitude of planting conditions. Published in BioEnergy Research, the model depicts the growth of 3-D plants, incorporating models of the biochemical and biophysical processes that underlie productivity. Singularity via http://ift.tt/orfraw June 23, 2017 at 01:02PM
Read more

How to capture videos of brains in real time

Image
How to capture videos of brains in real time http://ift.tt/2sTaUgJ Individual neurons firing within a volume of brain tissue (credit: The Rockefeller University) A team of scientists has peered into a mouse brain with light, capturing live neural activity of hundreds of individual neurons in a 3D section of tissue at video speed (30 Hz) in a single recording for the first time. Besides serving as a powerful research tool, this discovery means it may now be possible to “alter stimuli in real time based on what we see going on in the animal’s brain,” said Rockefeller University’s Alipasha Vaziri , senior author of an open-access paper published June 26, 2017 in Nature Methods . By dramatically reducing the time and computational resources required to generate such an image, the algorithm opens the door to more sophisticated experiments, says Vaziri, head of the Rockefeller Laboratory of Neurotechnology and Biophysics . “Our goal is to better understand brain function by monitor...
Read more