Filed under: Computers

While they aren’t full-blown ‘Transformers,’ ultra-thin smart sheets developed by MIT and Harvard researchers could pave the way for machines that fold into different shapes. According to Popular Science, the fiberglass sheets, which are made from .5-inch wide, .5-millimeter thick, triangular tiles, are dubbed ‘programmable matter.’ The researchers equipped the smart sheets with ultra-thin, shape-memory strips that are equipped with stickers containing circuits and algorithms, which, in turn, correspond with certain folding techniques. When electricity is applied, the strips heat up and change shape, thus spurring the stickers into action. (Check out the video after the break.) Think of it as high-tech origami.

For now, researchers have programmed these shape-shifting smart sheets to fold into small boats and airplanes. But their sights are set on real-world applications, like creating a complete dining room utensil set from smart sheets. Sure, giant transforming cars would be great, but we’d just love to see one of these dragons fold itself. [From: Popular Science]

Continue reading Shape-Shifting Smart Sheets Fold Like Origami

Shape-Shifting Smart Sheets Fold Like Origami originally appeared on Switched on Wed, 30 Jun 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Computers, Visionaries

Researchers at Harvard and the Children’s Hospital in Boston recently combined lung and blood vessel cells with microchip technology to create what they’ve dubbed a “lung-on-a-chip.” It may sound like the name of a cannibalistic afternoon snack, but the new gadget reportedly behaves and reacts like real lung tissue, and could radically change the way in which medical researchers study human lungs.

David Ingber, the vascular biologist leading the work at Harvard, told the Guardian that his team’s device could accurately mimic the inflammatory response triggered by pathogens, and that it could fully absorb airborne nanoparticles. Researchers are hopeful, then, that they’ll be able to use the lung-on-a-chip to study the effects that drugs and toxins have on the respiratory system without ever having to open up a human body. Ingber even predicts that the device, and those like it, “could replace many animal studies in the future.”

Continue reading ‘Lung-on-a-Chip’ Capable of Accurately Replicating Natural Lung

‘Lung-on-a-Chip’ Capable of Accurately Replicating Natural Lung originally appeared on Switched on Fri, 25 Jun 2010 17:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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