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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."
Suddenly all of those tentacle slime rape Hentai animes don't look so implausible do they? Shudder...
everyone needs a gelatinous cube
:(
I for one welcome our oscillating polymer overlords.
We must improve our salt-shaker technology.
Hmm, plenty of Google results for "great sponge migration", but none for "great slime migration". Your time has come slime, your time has come.
If he's the Walrus then can I be a penguin please?
In related new, Wizards of Coast filed suit against the scientist for violating their Intellectual Property. They are seeking damages in excess of 100 million dollars.
I only look human.
My mother is a halfling and my dad is an ogre, so that makes me an Ogreling
Liar.
You're a slashdotter. The slashdotter relationship function is a binary function.
Either you have no hope of getting a piece, which makes you a liar, or you're married, which also makes you a liar.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
I, for one, welcome our new polymer gel overloads.
Somehow, I don't see it being very long before someone applies this to the technology of sexual aids. And being Japanese in origin, I think it may actually be the intended use.
I can see the fnords!
Reminds me of the movie The Green Slime I saw when I was way too young to be watching late-night TV.
... my answer to the "how much longer do you expect to live" poll question.
With that thing on the loose, not much longer, I fear....
In times of universal deceit, telling the truth gets you modded -1 Troll
...not to mention every other Hollywood SFX house are drooling all the way down their shirts.
We are the 198 proof..
If this is a closed system inside the polymer, how does it stop?
My physics knowledge says that this can not perpetuate indefinitely.
My chemistry knowledge says that is this chemical reaction is oscillating now, it will be oscillating forever.
My head hurts!
Grey Goo! Nuff said.
Smivs on the intertubes!
They're asking for 14d10+40 million dollars. The outcome of the trial will be decided by opposing Profession (Lawyer) checks.
Aaaachooooooo!
Table-ized A.I.
Now they need to give it anime eyes and a teardrop shape, then work on the metallic version with really high defense.
Revive the Constitution.
What if you're the kind of guy who doesn't think women are perfect little angels that bless you with their presence, and don't care whether or not you "get a piece" (which in fact ironically leads you to having better relationships in general)?
Just when you think you can get the tune out of your head...
Beware of the blob,
it creeps
and leaps
and glides
and slides across the floor
right through
the door
and all around the wall
a splotch,
a blotch
be careful of the blob
That stuff looks nasty. I am not sure if I should pour salt on it, or expose it to high levels of UV light before it can land on Spock and inject part of a hive brain into him.
Why, without your clothes, you're naked, Miss Dudley!
doth Azathoth reenter the baryonic matter universe
Simmer down, it's a joke. See, it plays on the two most common sterotypes of adult males who don't have sex, which are basement-dwelling nerds and married men. The 'get a piece' term was used for it's directness, hints of sexual ignorance and/or cavalierness, and mouthflow to enhance the basic premise of the joke.
Obviously, those stereotypes don't always apply (actually, they usally *aren't* applicable, but since there is a tinge of truth to them, they remain good sources for humor). And while 'get a piece' may be offensive to some, that's part of what makes it a useful phrase in crafting humor.
Now that I've needed to explain this in great detail, while a simple *whoosh* may or may not have been sufficient... let me just say this:
Jokesmithing is serious business. I are serious jokester.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
said
One man with a gun can control 100 without one
This could revolutionize the hair gel industry. Think of it... oscillating, dynamically waving hair!
So I can I throw various types of candy at this thing and make it turn into a ladder? Live action NES games rule!
New here much?
[counts the digits]
Yes. Yes you are.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Women are the devil. My mama told me so.
OK, I admit it was a rotten pun, but just look at it...
Imagine a beowulf cluster of these...
Maybe it would be just like one of the critters in the saga...
Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.
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?
Check out the levitating jello at the end of this clip: http://gizmodo.com/5219724/sprintcam-v3-hd-shoots-breathtaking-full-hd-video-at-1000-fps :P
Although, after some thought, it seems both goo and jello both possess some kind of internal vibration, so perhaps the phenomena are related. Any experts in nonlinear elasticity out there?
-1 Offtopic
+1 Entertaining
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PI2Y7wzhjVA
i'm sure the fantasy role playing game jokes abound in this lab (more-so than usual). hopefully everyone remembers to keep their blunt weapons handy, just in case...cause you know, whatcouldpossiblygowrong
not only is time travel possible, it's irrelevant.
Great, now all we have to do is see if it responds to music, spray the insides of the Statue of Liberty with it, crank up the tunes and have her walk down the streets of New York.
They could even make a movie out of it! Or a sequel!
View it here.
looks like SquareEnix finally has a real life Slime for sale. Japanese Gamers will eat this up. Now only color it blue, red and grey and put giant smiley faces on them...
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
Jokesmithing is serious business. I are serious jokester.
So I presume you practice Slight of Wit?
No, I understand him. Really I do. I studied humour seriously for many years. It's so hard to get people to understand the seriousness of this study. Yes.
Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear
Electric slime, leads to robotic slime, or slime robots at any rate, from there it's just a matter of time until we have to face nuclear powered slime robots. At which point we are doomed. Thanks guys.
I read the word "oscillate" as "osculate", and, like the article poster, *I* couldn't stop screaming.
How long can it keep going? If it doesn't stop then wouldn't it be a form of or degree of Perpetual Motion?
If so, this way of harnessing that reaction could eventually lead to power generation that could charge batteries.
Of course, there could be some reason why this couldn't be done, but I wouldn't assume that, I'd want to know for sure...
Get out of the house and stop playing Dragon Quest.
Doll... might make for gender-neutral, good aural or gap-filler (feeler?) effects.
or, use it for caseload reduction for trauma/ER rooms. Imagine slime ordered to deal with a sucking chest wound. Of course, a soldier might die of heart attack at the sight of slime crawing to the rib cage. Might also make for good sci-fi special visual effects.
Any geeks/nerds out there with horny-ass little (redundant?) chihuahuas? Maybe they could wrap their little bony/bowed ass legs around rag-sized slime. After insliminating, they might give rise to real reservoir or slime dogs. That would be an abumination of nature.
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
As usual - it is the only way to be sure.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
I don't think you know just how close you were with that pun.
From TFA:
The BZ reaction is one of a class of chemical systems in which the concentration of one or more compounds periodically increases and decreases.
As well as producing stunning patterns, it can even be used to perform calculations using a dish containing the pulsing patterns as a chemical brain.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
...instant Shoggoths!
I know the "married guys get none" stereotype is pretty prevalent (hell, I got told it a LOT in the leadup to my own wedding) and I use it myself occasionally for comedic effect...
;)
Statistically, thought, we actually get more than even the 'playa playa' single guys. I always find it amusing when a single friend of mine (with pretensions of being Mr Smooth Moves) is bragging about how he got with this hot chick on the weekend and they got it on three times. I'm just waiting for him to ask 'when I last got some' so I can reply "oh, twice last night then once this morning before work".
Rampant carbon sequestration destroyed the Dinosaurs' tropical paradise. I'm here to help repair the damage.
Does it feel pain?
So I presume you practice Slight of Wit?
His wit is very slight indeed.
GhostBusters!
No, I understand him. Really I do. I studied humour seriously for many years. It's so hard to get people to understand the seriousness of this study. Yes.
"When I first said I was going to be a comedian, they laughed at me."
Hang on a second. That's not exactly a common mix. Was this guy trying out for the "Most Random Acid Cocktail" award?
Actually he was working on a formula for the next new male sexual enhancement drug, but instead he accidentally created another alternative to sexual intercourse with a male for women....oh irony....
Motorcycles, Robots, Space Gossip and More!
For example it probably cools when moving so it could be used for conditioning or to spin some kind of electric generator...
No matter what is the efficiency if we use a lot ot these it could be really neat!
Someone should redo the giant robots genre, but instead of kids piloting giant robots, they are implanted as the nucleii of giant combat amoebas.
Gundam Mobile Slime?
Actually, Evangelion was kinda off in that direction, anyhow!
Apparently what was going on was that Belousov was trying to generate an inorganic analog to the Krebs cycle at the time he discovered his oscillating reaction. Instead of using enzymes, he was using oxidizing agents like potassium bromate and cerium(IV)sulfate to try to interconvert a series of carboxylic acids.
"FDA staff reviewers expressed concern about the number of patients who were left out of the study because they died."
its finally a reality! will it power everything?
You have to have been married less than 5 years. I would almost put money on it.
I feel sorry for people that don't drink, because when they get up in the morning, that's as good as they're gonna feel
I am astonished and a little frightened that you know these details...