Synthetic, Self-Healing Skin That's Sensitive To The Touch
Self-Healing, Touch-Sensitive Synthetic Skin Linda A. Cicero, Stanford News ServiceHuman skin is a hard system to emulate, but that hasn't stopped Stanford scientists from producing a touch-sensitive material that can heal itself at room temperature. Before we can construct the realistic humanoid robots that populate our most vivid sci-fi-driven dreams, there are a lot of human systems that researchers are going to have to emulate synthetically. Not the least challenging is human skin; filled with nerve endings and able to heal itself over time, our skin serves as both a massive sensory system and a barrier between our innards and the outside world. Now, an interdisciplinary team of Stanford researchers has created the first synthetic material that is both self-healing at room temperature and sensitive to touch--a breakthrough that could be the beginnings of a new kind of robot skin (and in the meantime enjoy much more practical applications like...