Janus Particles as Body Submarines?

Roland Piquepaille writes "Janus particles, which take their name from a Roman god with two faces, are microscopic 'two-faced' spheres whose halves are physically or chemically different. Now, U.S. researchers have shown that some of these Janus microparticles can move like stealthy submarines when an alternating electrical field is applied to liquid surrounding them. This could lead to new kinds of self-propelling microsensors or means of targeted drug delivery."

Comments

Finally!

[jovius]

Two faced particles that stealthy move in a liquid. Pick up any government, and you can make the same observation. I wonder if the findings of the research team are applicable to macroscopic solutions?

Re:Cut the jibba jabba!

[rbanffy]

Actually, the part that deserved the informative mod is the one that said that everyone knew that. I had no idea, before reading the post, that so many people knew about anisotropic particles and unbalanced liquid flows caused by electric fields applied to aqueous suspensions of them. ;-P