Taking inspiration from a toy, a team of researchers at MIT have developed a new engineering structure that is mechanically unstable, yet collapses in a way that is predictable and reversible. The structure, formed out of a single piece of rubber-like material, is fabricated so that it collapses in harmony to form a smaller structure that can then be expanded into the original shape. This structure opens up new potentials in everything from architecture to micro-medical applications... Continue Reading
Collapsible “Buckliball” turns failure into functionality
1 comment:
OK, if nothing else, I want one of these little green thingies on my desk. With a little valve in the side so I can blow air into it, or suck it out, like a balloon through a little vinyl tube, and watch it collapse and expand.
Yes, I know little things please little minds, but it would be nice to have sitting next to my official Warner Brothers Marvin the Martian action figure.
Seriously, the applications for this are mind-boggling. I can imagine millions of very tiny ones, contracted or expanded by electrostatic repulsion rather than air pressure, being linked together like the bits of the toy ball to form a sort of 3D "net" matrix. You could conceivably make almost anything out of it, and it would be flexible enough for almost any purpose by the nature of is structure. For instance, imagine an emergency tent for a pilot that would fit in a thigh pocket of the flight suit, and still be big enough for two men, well enough insulated to keep you alive in an Arctic winter, and tough enough to resist an Alaskan williwaw.
cheers
eon
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