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The list of potential applications for a new electrically conducting fiber—artificial muscles, exoskeletons and morphing aircraft—sounds like something out of science fiction or a comic book. With a list like that, it's got to be a pretty special fiber... and it is. The fiber, made from sheets of carbon nanotubes wrapped around a rubber core, can be stretched to 14 times its original length and actually increase its electrical conductivity while being stretched, without losing any of its resistance.
An international research team based at the University of Texas at Dallas initially targeted the new super fiber for artificial muscles and for capacitors whose storage capacity increases tenfold when the fiber is stretched. However, the researchers believe that the material could be used as interconnects in flexible electronics and a host of other related applications.
In research published in the journal Science, the team describes how they devised a method for wrapping electrically conductive sheets of carbon nanotubes around the rubber core in such a way that the fiber's resistance doesn't change when stretched, but its conductivity increases.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday July 28 2015, @08:36AM
Now let's migrate that example towards the one in the article, and take the elasticity out of the conductor - wrap some inductor wire tightly around a piece of rubber. Again, the resistance stays the same as you stretch it. Yet the length increased and cross sectional area noticeably decreased. So the conductivity again increased!
Of course, in neither of these cases, the conductivity didn't increase. It's just that the measurement being used for cross sectional area and length was inappropriate. Apart from scale, there was nothing in the video that really distinguished what was happening from my two examples, and so I'd say the burdon of proof behind their extraordinary claims of the *increase of an intrinsic property of a material* must be to prove that their measurements of the dimensions are appropriate.
What happens if their nanosheath is cut lengthways? (something which destroys my two examples, does it destroy theirs? If so, they're probably cheating the same way I was.)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 1) by plogerjb on Wednesday July 29 2015, @04:26AM
Surprised this is the only comment I see on here - I had the same feeling when reading the summary.
I believe in doing the right thing as well as being fair. Sometimes these don't go hand in hand.