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Fnord666 [soylentnews.org] writes:

Silly Putty is not just for making stretchy faces any more. Scientists have found that by adding graphene you get a very sensitive strain detector. [popsci.com]

It's easy to dismiss Silly Putty as a kid's toy. But the stretchy material actually exhibits some surprising properties: It's one of the softest plastics around, and it can behave like both a liquid and a solid, oozing when gently stretched but bouncing off surfaces like a rubber ball when hurled. And when you mix Silly Putty with graphene—strong, conductive carbon sheets with unusual physical properties—it becomes an incredibly sensitive strain detector that can track blood pressure, heart rate, and even a spider's footsteps.

[...] That change makes g-putty about 500 times more sensitive than other deformation-detecting materials, which would respond to a similar compression with a mere one-percent change in electrical resistance. The results [sciencemag.org]were published in the journal Science.

[...] This type of material could be used in the electromechanical sensors that measure vibrations. Specifically, the soft putty is a perfect candidate for measuring bodily motion. A squishy, unobtrusive sensor could track a baby's breathing, for example, without irritating or disturbing the child. Placed over a pulse point, a similar sensor could measure not only heart rate, Coleman claims, but blood pressure as well.

Changes in blood pressure often precede negative changes to a patient's status. So, Coleman says, "If you could continuously measure blood pressure, you would have a fantastic way of measuring the wellness of someone. This sensor can do that, and it can do it cheaply."

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