Scientists invent "slime" – could be used in medical, energy, robot applications
16 comments
·February 8, 2025danwills
biofox
There's a pervasive idea amongst science communicators that you have to use common childlike words to make science accessible -- there's a fear that technical words are elitist and exclusionary. The end result is that every science documentary is now presented like a kids TV show, even when it's targeted at adults.
EDIT: Forgot to add, the researchers referred to it as a "Ferroelectric soft material".
xarope
And this is how we get "the length of 5000 olympic pools", "the length of 200 747s placed nose to tail" etc.
Like really, people can't understand 155 miles/250km, or 8.8 miles/14.2km?
falcor84
I also never understood who the 747s need to be placed nose to tail. I think of I was in charge of measuring via planes, I would place them nose to nose and tail to tail.
fujinghg
That is exactly the problem. When my family watch science documentaries I die inside a bit. They seem to have left with some insight but they managed to slap about 20 words together and some fancy scenes and extrapolations and turn it into an hour of garbage.
Cue Brian Cox thoughtfully staring into oblivion.
biofox
For a nice reminder of how science communication used to be, there's always the BBC archive:
tommiegannert
Ferroelectric soft materials formed with alkanolamines and unsaturated fatty acids
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016773222...
I don't understand cyclic voltammetry, but it seems from Fig 4a this tops out at about 75 µW/cm²?
quanto
> If installed in floors, it could produce clean energy when people walk on it.
This is a bit far fetched as it does not mention any power density figure. Being compressed likely squeezes out micro watts. Off by at least 6 orders of magnitude.
What's interesting is that these materials can be used as sensors, building small voltages/sending small currents when deformed.
falcor84
Generating electricity from people stepping on the floor is actually already a thing with current technology - https://www.pavegen.com/
BriggyDwiggs42
Oh no is it just solar roadways again
user432678
> if installed in floors, your employees could be tracked, exposing less efficient team.
fujinghg
I hate marketing releases for scientific papers.
The one paper I co-authored whilst mostly drunk on a Mediterranean island would have been described as "new statistical model could save billions of lives!" if we hadn't called the university out on it. It would have been a grand extrapolation of a nothing.
14
My kids just want to know if they can play with it and spill in on the carpet or car seat or couch so they can create hours of work for me cleaning up their slime.
On a serious note these material discoveries are neat to see but seldom do we see any real world applications come out of them. I am absolutely ready for the next game changing tech to come out. The next battery. Or finally fusion power. A space elevator. Anything. My guess is the next big change will be personal robots becoming main stream. First in business then in our homes. We were promised clothes folding laundry machines a couple years back that never happened. I need my laundry bot asap.
falcor84
It's probably going to take a bit longer, but there's a lot of ongoing progress in this area. A recent approach is actually called ASAP - https://agile.human2humanoid.com/
itronitron
Maybe we need a washing machine that acts more like a car wash. Basically you take a shower with your clothes on and then stand under a giant fan to dry off.
xarope
+1. Forget self driving, where are those darn ironing and folding bots? Talk about hours saved.
While this seems cool and fascinating, I think it'd be good to call it something other than 'slime'! That word is already taken, several times over.. why not get creative? "Electro-squeeze-goo"? "Piezoelectric-paste"?