Diodes Could Drive Swimming Micro-Robots

finisterre writes "Diodes can be made to 'swim' through salt water by hitting them with an alternating electric field. The applied field induces a current that sets up a field between the diode's electrical contacts and creates a propulsive force. The abstract of the paper in Nature Materials is freely available. New Scientist has videos of the swimming diodes in action."

Comments

Uhhh

[malkir]

I for one welcome our robotic sperm overlords.

Re:Uhhh

[dintech]

No robosperm for me thank you. Because hitting them with an alternating electric field sounds like quite a painful thing to do to yourself. :P

Then again, if implemented properly it does open a whole new realm of two-handed typing...

Re:Uhhh

[Anonymous Coward]

I for one think your both a pair of assholes regurgitating worn out jokes!

Reading this before properly waking up...

[ricky-road-flats]

... I read dildoes instead of diodes, and I can't even think of a joke for it.

That's what I get for hitting Slashdot before the first morning coffee. Once I have that buzz I might be able to think of a punchline.

leave your taser at home

[User 956]

Diodes can be made to 'swim' through salt water by hitting them with an alternating electric field.

And yet for some reason this same method doesn't work so well on people.

Re:leave your taser at home

[Shemmie]

That's not true. I connected my local swimming pool to the mains voltage to test the theory - after that, they all floated.

Re:Stealth

[Anonymous Coward]

mmmm....a submarine covered in LEDs.

Would look pretty cool, but I doubt it would be very stealthy.

Plus you'd get giant squid attracted by the light trying to mate with the sub.....messy

Swimming with Diodes.

[fahrbot-bot]

"Diodes can be made to 'swim' through salt water by hitting them with an alternating electric field.

Now if they can mount freakin' LASERs on them as well...