my.chemie.de
With an accout for my.chemie.de you can always see everything at a glance – and you can configure your own website and individual newsletter.
Falko Ziebert
With the wheel within, the researchers hit upon an extremely simple principle to set polymer materials into spontaneous motion.
Zoom in
Physicists and material scientists have succeeded in constructing a motor and an energy storage device from one single component. They used an elastic polymer fibre closed into a ring that was made to rotate on application of an external energy supply. The researchers from the universities in Heidelberg and Strasbourg (France) hope that this mechanism will spur the development of intelligent materials with precisely defined functions.
„Our approach is minimalistic. We don’t rely on complex, high-tech materials but instead ask ourselves how the geometry and topology of a piece of material can elicit an intelligent function, such as rotation. That's how our wheel within came about,“ reports Dr Falko Ziebert of the Institute for Theoretical Physics at Heidelberg University, who co-directed the research with Dr Igor Kulić of the Institut Charles Sadron of the University of Strasbourg. Unlike a traditional rigid wheel that travels around an axle, an elastic deformation wave forms in this wheel within, causing it to move. “Simple heat flow generates the propulsion by causing thermal expansion in the material, much like the thermal convection in our atmosphere that determines our weather and climate. This thermal deformation interacts with the prescribed deformation of the ring geometry and elicits the rotation,” explains Dr Ziebert.
With the wheel within, the researchers hit upon an extremely simple principle to set polymer materials, like a nylon thread or a rubber band, into spontaneous motion. This principle will be the basis for further research. “Right now we are still playing with different geometries, materials, and other forms of energy flow through the system,” states Dr Kulić. One vision is to develop new technical devices with robust, self-propelled elements, in the form of artificial muscles, for instance. Researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (Switzerland) also contributed to the study.
From Wound Healing to Regeneration
The phenomenon of regeneration was discovered over 200 years ago in the freshwater polyp Hydra. Until now, however, it was largely unclear how the orderly regeneration of lost tissues or organs is activated after injury. In its investigations of Hydra, an interdisciplinary research team at ... more
Porous Crystals Bind Fluorine-containing Greenhouse Gases
Emissions of greenhouse gases contribute significantly to global warming. Not only carbon dioxide (CO2) but also fluorine-containing gases – including so-called per- or polyfluorinated hydrocarbons, or PFCs – have a significant share in this development. Researchers at the Institute of Orga ... more
Rear-end Collision on the “Ribosome Highway”
As a molecular machine found in the cells of all organisms, the ribosome is responsible for making new proteins. It reads the blueprint for a certain protein on a messenger molecule – known as messenger RNA (mRNA) – and then converts this information into new proteins. For a number of reaso ... more
Naturally occurring chemical reactions may have evolved into the biochemical processes we know today. A team of researchers has now discovered that a reaction sequence from the so-called reverse Krebs cycle—a fundamental biochemical process—can also take place without enzymes. The team writ ... more
Some useful drugs consist of peptides acting on their protein targets. To make them more efficient and stable, scientists have found a way to replace crucial segments of the peptides with ureido units. These oligoureas, which are composed of urea-based units, fold into a structure similar t ... more
A Light for Time, and a Time for Light
As everybody knows, our eyes are the sensory organs that allow us to see the world around us. Light enters the eye through the pupil and strikes the photosensitive retina at the back to commence a complex biochemical and physiological process that we know as vision. This ability is vital to ... more
born in 1956, studied zoology at the University of Bristol, UK, before gaining his doctorate in developmental neuropsychology in London (1978–81). He subsequently spent a postdoc sojourn at the Faculty of Biochemistry at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, where he firs ... more
The q&more concept is to increase the visibility of recent research and innovative solutions, and support the exchange of knowledge. In the broad spectrum of subjects covered, the focus is on achieving maximum quality in highly innovative sectors. As a modern knowledge platform, q&more offers market participants one-of-a-kind networking opportunities. Cutting-edge research is presented by authors of international repute. Attractively presented in a high-quality context, and published in German and English, the original articles introduce new concepts and highlight unconventional solution strategies.
> more about q&more
q&more is supported by:
