
Liquid metal brings shape-shifting robot a step closer - Libertatea
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn27127-liquid-metal-brings-shapeshifting-robot-a-step-closer.html?cmpid=RSS%7CNSNS%7C2012-GLOBAL%7Conline-news
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anigbrowl
O.o

The micro pumping and capillary action are extremely interesting, but seeing
how it deforms in response to an electrical current is just eye-popping.
Naturally I want to see what happens if you send AC signals rather than static
DC...at the least I would expect something similar to the behavior of
ferrofluids on a speaker cone, eg
[https://vimeo.com/65815077](https://vimeo.com/65815077) or even suspensions
of cornstarch:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dS9LNBQE2Jw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dS9LNBQE2Jw)
which has a handy how-to at the end.

The supplementary material is available free even though the article is
paywalled and is a great read.
[http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adma.201405438/su...](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adma.201405438/suppinfo)
The alloy is described here:
[https://gmwgroup.harvard.edu/pubs/pdf/1014.pdf](https://gmwgroup.harvard.edu/pubs/pdf/1014.pdf)

According to the supplemeentary, the aluminum flake 'fuel' is not consumed but
breaks up into tiny fragments and eventually diffuses to the surface, causing
the reaction to tail off. This seems like fairly fundamental research.

