Robotic Bees, Water and how it shapes matter and another Amazing New Material
June 15
This week we take flight with some robotic bees. We examine another new material with amazing properties that may have a large impact on several industries and we discover that it is water that determines the shape of organic matter. This discovery simplifies the math involved in understanding materials significantly. Finally we send our names to Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons.
Robotic Bees
As the world warms, one of the dangers is the fall off in the size of the bee population. Bees are critical to the pollination of food crops and wild flora. For the past few decades researchers have been trying to develop robotic bees. This has been difficult because due to the requirement that the robotic bees must have 6 degrees of freedom in their motion. A team from Washington State University has developed the Bee++ that can fly with all 6 degrees of freedom.
Bees have 4 wings which allow them to travel where they want however they are also must be able to pitch and roll in a set of movements called Yaw. Yaw allows the bee to reach the desired part of the flower. The team achieved this in the robot by having the front wings flap in a different way to the back wings for pitching and the right wings flap in a different way to the left wings for rolling. This process creates torque that rotates the robot around its horizontal axis.
Without being able to control Yaw the robotic bee would be spinning all the time whilst trying to reach a flower. The breakthrough was achieved through the math involved in controlling the motion. Mathematically it is much more difficult to control pitch and roll than forward and back. All other robots struggle with unusual movement patterns. There may be applications beyond robotic bees.
The bee++ is made out of carbon fibre and mylar. It uses a lightweight actuator to control the wings. This is the first robot of this type that can fly stably in all directions including the twisting motions of yaw. The bee++ is currently 10 times larger than a regular bee however it is an important step in the development of a robotic alternative to bees.
Another New Material
A team from University of California, Riverside, University of Texas, University of Colorado and University of Utah have created a new material at the intersection of organic and inorganic chemistry. The composite that they created is made of ultra small silicon nanoparticles and an organic element similar to those used in OLED TVs. The main benefits of this new material is the ability to increase the speed with which two molecules can exchange energy and of converting lower energy light into higher energy light. Infra red is a low energy wave whereas Ultraviolet is a high energy wave.
We already use a range of composite materials. For example carbon fibers and resins which are strong and lightweight and used in airplane wings. The materials in the composite behave differently than how their base components do when acting alone. The team took this one further step. They were able to take two extremely different materials and bond them strongly enough to create an entirely new material with distinct new properties.
There are a range of very different applications this material may enable. For example high energy light, such as ultraviolet laser light can form free radicals able to attack cancer tissue. UV light doesn’t travel deep enough into issues to generate therapeutic radicals close enough to tumors. Near infra red light will penetrate deep into the body however it doesn’t have enough energy to generate the radicals. This new material emits light with higher energy than the light shone on it (known as photon up conversion). The silicon dots that form the base of the new material are not toxic. A cancer treatment may involve injecting the material into a tumor and simply shining a near infra red light on the problem.
Low energy light that falls on solar cells could be boosted to higher energy light. This will boost the efficiency of solar cells by capturing the near infrared light that currently passes through unused. When optimized, this may reduce the size of solar panels by 30% for the same output. Solar arrays would be significantly more efficient.
There are other applications in 3D light based printing, bio imaging and the light sensors used with self driving cars in foggy weather.
What defines the Shape of Things?
We have always thought that the atoms and molecules that make up matter define the character and shape of any solid matter. For example salt crystals get their crystalline shape from the ionic bond between sodium and chloride ions. Metals get their strength from the bonds between the atoms and rubber gets its’ stretchiness from the flexible bonds within the polymers that make up the rubber.
A team from Columbia University have turned that on their head by proposing that the character of many biological materials is actually created by the water molecules that permeates these materials. They argue that water gives rise to a solid and defines the properties of that solid whilst maintaining its liquid properties. They have called these “hydration solids”.
When water is in its liquid form it is in a balance of order and disorder. However when the molecules that form biological materials combine with water the balance in the water moves towards order. The water wants to return to its original state and pushes the molecules away. This is called the hydration force (first discovered in the 1970’s). The researchers argue that the hydration force defines the character of biological matter almost entirely, including how soft or hard it is.
Current models of how water interacts with organic matter require intensive computer simulation. This new model makes the math very simple. The way that a material’s elasticity changes based upon humidity, temperature and molecule size comes down to a 4 factor equation (E=AI/λ) which is simply calculated.
Biological materials that allow water inside them, make up between 50% and 90% of the world. This new understanding allows us to predict a materials mechanical properties from basic physics principles. The team said that when we look at a tree, we should really think of it as a tower of water holding all the sugars and proteins in place.
Send your name to Europa
Long term readers will remember that a number of us sent our names to Mars. NASA engraved our names (and those of about a million others) onto a plaque on the Mars Rover.
A new opportunity has arisen to send your name into space. NASA’s Europa Clipper will soon travel 1.8 billion miles to the moon of Jupiter to explore Europa’s ocean world. There is high hope that some form of life may be discovered there. The flight takes off in October 2024 and is due to reach Europa in 2030.
To add your name to the mission enter here. I have entered, are you coming with me?
Paying it Forward
If you have a start-up or know of a start-up that has a product ready for market please let me know. I would be happy to have a look and feature the startup in this newsletter. Also if any startups need introductions please get in touch and I will help where I can.
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Till next week.