Imagine a liquid that could move on its own. No need for human effort or the pull of gravity. You could put it in a container flat on a table, not touch it in any way, and it would still flow.
Brandeis researchers report in a new article in Science that they have taken the first step in creating a self-propelling liquid. The finding holds out the promise of developing an entirely new class of fluids that can flow without human or mechanical effort. One possible real-world application: Oil might be able to move through a pipeline without needing to be pumped.
The researchers work at Brandeis' Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC), part of a National Science Foundation initiative to create a revolutionary new class of materials and machines made from biological components.
The breakthrough reported in the journal Science was achieved by reproducing in the lab the incredibly complex series of processes that allow cells to change shape and adapt to their environment. Cells can do this because the building blocks of its scaffolding—hollow cylindrical tubes called microtubules—are capable of self-transformation. The microtubules grow, shrink, bend and stretch, altering the cell's underlying structure.
They invented the Blob. Can't decide if that's creepy or cool...
Transition from turbulent to coherent flows in confined three-dimensional active fluids (DOI: 10.1126/science.aal1979) (DX)
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 25 2017, @11:39PM (1 child)
So all your Terminator nightmares are about to come true.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Sunday March 26 2017, @02:55PM
I'm so old I remember "them" saying that about magnetorheological fluids and electrorheological fluids. Other than some talk about active luxury car suspensions I don't recall either substance going very far, in part because keeping the "stuff" mechanically suspended evenly was very difficult without wear and tear and something about colloidal particles being too small to be highly effective or something. Someday that technology will probably amount to something, just like the ATP powered cilia from the linked article, just maybe not today or this decade or this century.