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

such a good idea?

[tps12]

This is really cool. The ability to convert light into energy seems like it could solve the Energy Crisis while doing away with Global Warming at the same time.

But I wonder if this could be the beginning of a dark future, both figuratively and literally. When we've used this technology to construct light-fuelled power plants, I imagine that each plant would be surrounded in shadow, as the light is sucked out of the air. As energy demands increase (as they tend to do as population and technology grow), more light will be used for fuel, and less will be left over for lighting the world, growing crops, &c.

We may end up in a literal Dark Age, a perpetual nighttime. We'll live entirely indoors, as lightproof tunnels are constructed between shielded communities, and scurry beneath an artificial sky, afraid of the night creatures beyond the walls. Let's take this one step at a time, and be very cautious about what we wish for; after all, it might come true. Something to think about.