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Tokyo Scientists Create Mobile Slime
Sockatume writes "Shingo Maeda and colleagues at Waseda University have created a polymer gel that walks under its own chemical power. The team exploited the oscillating Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction to create periodic changes in the size of the polymer, and built a tensed structure that would amplify those small movements into a horrifically potent gait. The current version only walks across a notched surface, but the team are working on a terrible new form that will cross smooth surfaces like a snail. The team say they intend to apply it in the self-assembly of small structures. Suddenly, I can't stop screaming."
...not to mention every other Hollywood SFX house are drooling all the way down their shirts.
We are the 198 proof..
everyone needs a gelatinous cube
That walks?
Why, without your clothes, you're naked, Miss Dudley!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belousov%E2%80%93Zhabotinsky_reaction
...These reactions are far from equilibrium and remain so for a significant length of time...
...An essential aspect of the BZ reaction is its so called "excitability" â" under the influence of stimuli, patterns develop in what would otherwise be a perfectly quiescent medium. Some clock reactions... can be excited into self-organising activity through the influence of light...
Well, looks like the power-transmission problem is solved - just shine a flashlight on the thing.
...The discovery of the phenomenon is credited to Boris Belousov. He noted... that in a mix of potassium bromate, cerium(IV) sulfate, propanedioic acid and citric acid in dilute sulfuric acid...
Hang on a second. That's not exactly a common mix. Was this guy trying out for the "Most Random Acid Cocktail" award?