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Introducing Magnet-Responsive Memory Foam

Posted by timothy on from the had-this-stuff-in-my-head-for-years dept.

Roland Piquepaille writes "The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) has recently reported that two research teams have developed a new porous foam of an alloy that changes shape when exposed to a magnetic field. The NSF states that this new material is able to remember its original shape after it's been deformed by a physical or magnetic force. This polycrystalline nickel-manganese-gallium alloy is potentially cheaper and lighter than other materials currently used in devices ranging from sonar to precision valves. It also could be used to design biomedical pumps without moving parts and even for space applications and automobiles."

16 of 69 comments (clear)

  1. Pumps with no moving parts? by Kupfernigk · · Score: 4, Interesting
    From the summary: "It also could be used to design biomedical pumps without moving parts"

    Well, such pumps do exist - you can pump liquid metals by passing a current through them, and applying a magnetic field at 90 degrees to the current as per high school physics - but I doubt they'll be pumping molten sodium through people any time soon. You could build a diaphragm pump with this approach, presumably using a two-phase magnetic circuit to very the length of the magnetic actuator, and this would probably be a lot better than passing airlines into people to operate conventional diaphragm pumps, as is done at present. But the pump has at least two moving parts, i.e. the actuator and the diaphragm.

    I suspect the author meant "no rotating parts".

    --
    From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
    1. Re:Pumps with no moving parts? by BigHungryJoe · · Score: 4, Insightful

      applying a magnetic field at 90 degrees to the current as per high school physics

      you went to a much better high school than I did

  2. this substance has been around since 1991 by circletimessquare · · Score: 4, Funny

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-1000

    --
    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
    1. Re:this substance has been around since 1991 by owlstead · · Score: 3, Funny

      I don't think the T-1000 was made of foam. It's been a while since I last saw the movie, but I cannot remember anything about a killer robot cuddling people to death.

  3. They forgot by Smordnys+s'regrepsA · · Score: 3, Interesting

    To mention that production of any theorized applications will take 5-10 years. Yeesh, the editors usually remember to add that bit of useless info when they add the useless list of possible uses!

    --
    Just -1, Troll talking to another.
  4. Fender Benders? by frinkacheese · · Score: 3, Funny

    This would be cool for bumpers (I think some of the colonies call them fenders). You could park your car, shunt the other card out of the way and then apply your magnetic field and say "Nar it wasn't me, mate. Look, my car is OK. Must have been some other bloke".

  5. Space Time Continium by Smordnys+s'regrepsA · · Score: 2, Insightful
    *ahem*

    a seemingly unstoppable cyborg assassin who has been sent back from the year 2029
    Just on track, I believe.
    --
    Just -1, Troll talking to another.
  6. Moving parts by michaelmalak · · Score: 4, Insightful

    biomedical pumps without moving partsThat should read "without rubbing parts". And even with that increased language precision, we still don't know the answer to the important question, which is whether this willow allow pumps "without fatiguing parts". (I suspect this will not be possible without biological-like microscopic self-healing.)

    1. Re:Moving parts by compumike · · Score: 4, Informative

      Correct. The big design concerns (and eventual failure points) in pumps, and even fans, are bearings and rotating seals. But there are already implantable heart pumps which rely on the principles of active magnetic levitation to remove the need for contact bearings. See this article for an example.

      --
      Coder? Want to learn electronics? Microcontroller kits.

  7. Holy specious conclusions, Batman by heinousjay · · Score: 3, Funny

    Yeah, heaven knows the US would be a better place if we all knew how to build motors. Then the Democrats would rule forever!

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    Slashdot - where whining about luck is the new way to make the world you want.
    1. Re:Holy specious conclusions, Batman by rbanffy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The world would be a better place if people were given proper scientific education.

      You know... That where you observe facts, formulate hypotheses and try to invalidate them through experiments.

      --
      http://www.dieblinkenlights.com
  8. Thanks for expanding my point by Kupfernigk · · Score: 5, Insightful
    It wasn't a jibe at Republicans. It was a jibe at a world in which the most advanced technological power can produce people who don't seem to have the least idea of the basis on which that power rests, and don't seem to care. It may be that if GWB had had a proper scientific education he might have tended to, say, believe the weapons inspectors and his own military rather than the spin merchants, though we can't be sure. It might be that he would, say, read Scientific American or National Geographic, and this would inspire him to leave a legacy of a serious attempt to solve world problems through the encouragement of science and technology

    I'd be almost equally happy if future politicians got a really good grounding in history, instead of being told that it is irrelevant.

    --
    From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
    1. Re:Thanks for expanding my point by Torvaun · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I have no issue with both sides being taught in schools, as long as we make sure that only the one that conforms to the scientific method gets called science. Intelligent design can go in a religion or philosophy class.

      --
      I see your informative link, and raise you a pithy comment.
    2. Re:Thanks for expanding my point by ArcherB · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I have no issue with both sides being taught in schools, as long as we make sure that only the one that conforms to the scientific method gets called science. Intelligent design can go in a religion or philosophy class.

      I don't know if I would even go that far. All most Christians want is that the theory of evolution be taught as a theory. As a Christian student, evolution fascinated me. I always felt that a slow evolution of species was much more a miracle than God simply saying "let there be X... and there was". I always wanted to know what happened when (and before... God is timeless after all) God said what he said, and evolution provided that to me. But too many science teachers wannabe scientists (like here on /.) use evolutional theory as proof that God doesn't exist. I see it as proof that God DOES exist as the odds of each evolutionary step happening as it does are so slim to be qualified as a miracle, IMHO.

      So I have nothing against the theory of evolution being taught as long as it's taught as a theory. My reasoning for that is nothing religious, but because sometimes, science is wrong. Even Einstein rejected the idea of the "Big Bang" as he rejected the idea of an expanding universe. He told Georges Lemaître (a Catholic Priest, btw) "Your calculations are correct, but your grasp of physics is abominable.". Einstein, of course, had to revise his theories once Hubble proved that the Universe was expanding.

      My point is that science evolves just like anything else. What is "fact" today is backward-thinking-junk-science tomorrow. Science and religion are not mutually exclusive. Evolution has about as much to do with disproving religion as the Big Bang, and I don't want it being taught as such. Teaching Darwin is fine. Teaching Darwin as a counter to religion is just wrong.

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      There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
  9. Re:Offtopic: Roland by dbIII · · Score: 2, Informative
    He is in the habit of making grand world changing announcements that unfortuately are not true because either he completely misunderstood the subject matter or if he did get it right the world changed forty years ago. None of his mistakes have needed more than two fifteen year old first year University textbook to point out - one in introductory materials science and one in introductory thermodynamics. There was a linking issue and advertisements at the end of the link some time ago that annoyed people but he doesn't do it anymore.

    He's puts in a lot more effort than Dvorak but it's still annoying when a tech journalist gets things wildly wrong.

  10. Hmmmm... by tgd · · Score: 3, Funny

    *notices banner ad for fleshlight*

    I may just have an idea here...