Scientists Create a New Kind of Liquid That Can Push Itself Along a Flat Surface
Moving a liquid from point A to point B typically requires either a sloping surface or a pump of some sort to apply pressure.
A new kind of material that is in early development requires neither, instead relying on a squirming skeleton of microscopic fibres to move it in a direction, opening the way for a class of fluid capable of worming itself through a channel.
Researchers from Brandeis University in Massachusetts took a hint from nature and investigated how the biomechanical properties of materials called microtubules could be applied to a mixture to make it move in a single direction around a container.
Read the story:
http://www.sciencealert.com/this-new-kind-of-liquid-can-push-itself-along-a-flat-surface-all-by-itself
Paper:
http://science.sciencemag.org/content/355/6331/eaal1979#Article%20in%20Science
Gif: A slow-motion animation of microtubules — the red lines — floating in a watery solution.
Video source:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLOtlWTwtHRXd922_RSmrUFknzZ0WnnTkp&v=RYPfQOvMmL8
#physics #fluiddynamics #science #research #microtubules
way to go science!
ReplyDeletePrompts curiosity as to the thermodynamics. In the extended abstract, most of it gets satisfied by "Upon ATP depletion, the motion of microscopic motors grinds to a halt; the turbulent-like dynamics of active fluids ceases, and one recovers the behavior of conventional gels." -- so it's no perpetual motion machine, but chemically powered behavior.
ReplyDeleteThanks for shared Miss Corina...:-)....
ReplyDelete