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defrogTwo bits of news for those of you still hoping to have yr very own replicant sex toy before you die:
ITEM: Japanese researchers say they have developed a rubber that is able to conduct electricity well, paving the way for robots with stretchable "e-skin" that can feel heat and pressure like humans.
ITEM: Scientists at the University of Reading have unveiled “Gordon”, the world's first robot controlled exclusively by living brain tissue. Taken from rat foetuses.
Go science!
Yr plastic fantastic pal,
This is dF
ITEM: Japanese researchers say they have developed a rubber that is able to conduct electricity well, paving the way for robots with stretchable "e-skin" that can feel heat and pressure like humans.
The material is made by grinding carbon nanotubes, or tube-shaped carbon molecules, with an ionic liquid and adding it to rubber. Carbon nanotubes often bunch up together but the millimetre-long tubes coupled with the ionic liquid can be uniformly dispersed in rubber to realise both high conductivity and flexibility.
ITEM: Scientists at the University of Reading have unveiled “Gordon”, the world's first robot controlled exclusively by living brain tissue. Taken from rat foetuses.
Gordon has a brain composed of 50,000 to 100,000 active neurons. Once removed from rat foetuses and disentangled from each other with an enzyme bath, the specialised nerve cells are laid out in a nutrient-rich medium across an eight-by-eight centimetre array of 60 electrodes. This "multi-electrode array" (MEA) serves as the interface between living tissue and machine, with the brain sending electrical impulses to drive the wheels of the robots, and receiving impulses delivered by sensors reacting to the environment.
Go science!
Yr plastic fantastic pal,
This is dF
