Scientists: car of the future rides on bacteria – De Gelderlander

A research team from New York’s Columbia University has a model car ride on bacteria spores that react to water vapor. The tracks take the wheel in motion and drives a car to.

Ozgur Sahin, principal investigator, the egg of Columbus believes to have found. He is convinced that the technique with which his team did drive a model car, can be used to build generators that can generate as much energy as wind turbines. The researchers emphasize that seventy percent of the earth’s surface consists of water. Sahin: ,, Evaporation is everywhere, and the process is more powerful than wind and water (eds.) ”. The technique could also prove his service in robotics and smart sportswear.

Humidity
last year Sahin found that when bacterial spores shrink and swell depending on the humidity, they objects may move. The team designed a mill wheel -the Moisture Mill- with an open (humid air) and dense (dry air) half. Pieces of tape with bacterial spores and a weight on the end of tasks.

Because the tracks responsive to the humidity, the wheel starts moving. The scientists concluded the spinning wheel as a motor to a toy, making this pure locomotion evaporation. Sahin predicts that cars in the future no fuel or electricity needed, but only power by bacteria spores vapor.

Scaling
Professor Jaap den Bearer of the Technische Eindhoven University tempers expectations: ,, It will take years before the technique can be used on a large scale ”

Jaap den Bearer does in Eindhoven also research into artificial muscles (artificial muscles).. An artificial muscle is a structure that behaves like a human muscle: contraction and relaxation. The artificial muscle is made of material that responds to a stimulus from the environment, such as, for example, light, air humidity, temperature or acidity. The material can be anything: polymers, liquid crystal, metal.

The Bearer calls the research exciting because they have created an artificial muscle of biological material. But he does not believe in the promises of the researchers. ,, To generate energy must be able to perform labor. ” Labor is physically determined by multiplying power and movement together. ,, They have the muscle or in motion, but if you want to generate energy must also be able to exercise power, ” he explains. He suspects that there’s a whole bunch ‘muscle fibers’ for need to supply enough power and that is the problem, according to him the boot.

Kids
Research into artificial muscles is as The Bearer still in its infancy, but the future looks promising. Companies such as DSM and Philips monitor the investigation, according to him closely.

In the next ten years may be expected, according to the professor ‘smart’ solar panels, which automatically towards the sun. He also sees potential for medical applications, such as a drug capsule which breaks open under the influence of the acidity of the stomach, for example, to bring the drug in the right place.