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What's going on in science: Coming (perhaps) shoes


Posted: Jan 11, 2013

 

Another one of the products of science that seem too amazing to be true: Researchers at MIT have invented the technological equivalent of Mexican jumping beans. As seen in the video above [at the link], they’ve created polymer films that act like artificial fast-twitch muscles, spontaneously curling up and dancing around in an eerily life-like way.

The polymer sheets are specially designed to rapidly expand when they come into contact with water, and contract when they expel it. ...

Although the polymers are simply pretty cool to watch, the researchers had a practical application in mind when they developed them: producing electricity.  

They say the sheets produced bursts of electricity peaking at about 1 volt. Since the polymer can also be stimulated by the mere presence of water vapor in the air  ... 

It’s even possible, they suggest, that this type of material could be sewn into clothing, in order to harvest electricity from the sweat that evaporates off your body. ”You could be running or exercising and generating power,” ..

Watching that video makes me wonder just where in clothing they might go and with what result in mind. :) 




Read more: http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/science/2013/01/video-tiny-artificial-muscles-dance-like-mexican-jumping-beans/#ixzz2HhBTbxVy 
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