Assessing an object's consistency without touching it
Monday, June 25, 2012 - 16:00
in Physics & Chemistry
Two teams of researchers have succeeded in evaluating the rigidity of a material … without touching it! To achieve this feat, physicists placed a liquid -- where they created a very weak, nanometric scale flow –- between the probed object and the “tester”. This technique, derived from the latest advances in nano-mechanics, has the advantage of being non-invasive and therefore non-destructive and could significantly improve the testing and analysis of thin, fragile objects such as bubbles or cells.