Slashdot Mirror
New Material Can Fold Itself Into Hundreds of Shapes (sciencemag.org)
sciencehabit writes: Researchers have created the first heat-reactive polymer material that can not only remember its current shape but also memorize new ones. The material—which currently requires high temperatures to change shape and reset its memory—could lead to a new generation of reusable self-folding materials that could be useful for everything from medical implants to shape-shifting electronics (abstract). The new substance has transition temperatures of 70C and 130C for elasticity and plasticity, respectively. To demonstrate its multishape capabilities, Xie's team turned a 30-millimeter square of the material into an origami masterpiece that could fold between two shapes using elasticity and change into other shapes using plasticity. Not only did the material fold into multiple different shapes, but it could also snap between them hundreds of times with little sign of fatigue—a critical feature if the material is to be used in real-world applications, they report today in Science Advances.
I can think of a million uses for something like this, starting with medical technology and moving out into any number of fields.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
needs a video
Or a hat. Or pterodactyl.
One must beware of folding it too many times.
-- haaz.
This stuff sounds strangely familiar to the stuff that was describe in the Roswell crash stuff. The metal that could be crumpled up and it would go back to it's original shape... Hmmmm.....
The Truth is a Virus!!!
I don't want no implant inside me heating up to 130C. 37C is just fine for me.
All we need now is a little energon, right?
Shape Memory Alloy are a Nickel Titainium alloy often called muscle wire because by changing its crystal structure it gets shorter when heated or an electric current runs through it. While very different in how it works from a polymer, Shape Memory Alloy has had similar uses including heart stints, explosive bolt replacements on spacecraft, toys and heating air vent controls. Biggest down side to it is it tends to be a bit slow so it is more sloth muscle than jackrabbit muscle.
Admit it, you want make Optimus Prime!
researchers Tao Xie and colleagues from State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering in Hangzhou, China.
these things should be mentioned in post above (and usually are in other posts here).
oversight?
We could finally build a masturbator that is not going for the smallest common denominator?
For, if it can't, it will, at best, occupy a very small niche.