New Light-Activated Micro-Motor

enkidu55 writes: "This link to Popular Science's website shows how a team of scientists in Germany have found that a certain polymer changes shape when hit with different wavelengths of light. They used this to stretch and compress a small spring sort of like the piston in a motor. Still pretty raw, but the potential is amazing."

Comments

Self sustaining?

[CXI]

This makes me wonder if a motor like this could be used to turn a "shade cog" over itself so once you start the motor going it will continue to run based on its own dark/light cycle. This same shade could have more of these motors under it which generate the actual useful work.