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posted by cmn32480 on Wednesday April 20 2016, @11:37AM   Printer-friendly
from the like-a-big-rubber-band dept.

Jolting a super-stretchy, self-healing material with an electrical field causes it to twitch or pulse in a muscle-like fashion. The polymer can also stretch to 100 times its original length, and even repair itself if punctured.

Cheng-Hui Li, working in the Stanford University lab of chemical engineering professor Zhenan Bao, wanted to test the stretchiness of a rubberlike type of plastic known as an elastomer that he had just synthesized. Such materials can normally be stretched two or three times their original length and spring back to original size. One common stress test involves stretching an elastomer beyond this point until it snaps.

But Li, a visiting scholar from China, hit a snag: The clamping machine typically used to measure elasticity could only stretch about 45 inches. To find the breaking point of their one-inch sample, Li and another lab member had to hold opposing ends in their hands, standing further and further apart, eventually stretching a 1-inch polymer film to more than 100 inches.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 20 2016, @11:49AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 20 2016, @11:49AM (#334664)

    Stretchy and self-healing and it has its own orgasms?! Where can I buy a rape doll made of this stuff???

    • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 20 2016, @12:09PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 20 2016, @12:09PM (#334667)

      For you, any rubber will do, even a tyre - you won't get to stretch anything upon insertion, the indentations on the tyre surface is likely to fit yours with room to spare.

      • (Score: 2) by Bot on Wednesday April 20 2016, @02:21PM

        by Bot (3902) on Wednesday April 20 2016, @02:21PM (#334716) Journal

        Instructions unlear, penis stuck in the ceiling fan.

        --
        Account abandoned.
  • (Score: 2) by bitstream on Wednesday April 20 2016, @04:35PM

    by bitstream (6144) on Wednesday April 20 2016, @04:35PM (#334785) Journal

    So eventually they had to stretch that 1-inch polymer film inch by inch until it became more.. like metric, like an enormous 254 of them even, cm ones. :P

    The president has signed a decree to abolish those imperial ones and instead all schools will educate on the system of obamas. All volumes will be measures in presidential obama^3 farts, from there all other units can be derived by an army of special groups, special interests.

  • (Score: 1) by plnykecky on Wednesday April 20 2016, @05:22PM

    by plnykecky (4276) on Wednesday April 20 2016, @05:22PM (#334811)

    ..chewing gum!!

  • (Score: 1) by anubi on Thursday April 21 2016, @03:56AM

    by anubi (2828) on Thursday April 21 2016, @03:56AM (#335031) Journal

    I wonder about making a mannequin with this stuff - that would have all the muscles in the appropriate places so it looks very realistic.

    It would get a helluva lot of attention at the mall....

    ( I suggest a mannequin first because strength isn't all that much of an issue as long as its sufficient to overcome gravity and move the limb.)

    Later... prosthetics.

    The makers of "RealDoll" would probably be highly interested in this... so would their customers.

    --
    "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]