A Rubber Computer
Physicists develop a metamaterial that can count
A block of rubber that can count to ten and even remember the order in which it is pressed—physicists Martin van Hecke and Lennard Kwakernaak (Leiden University and AMOLF Amsterdam) have published about this latest metamaterial in the journal Physical Review Letters.
“I like finding complexity in simple things.” With a big smile Ph.D. candidate Kwakernaak enters the room, the showpiece in his hands: a piece of soft rubber with 22 beams in pairs. “This is our beam counter. Push it,” he says.
The result is unexpected. The bars all bend to the left except the first one, which bends to the right. “That first bar then pushes the next pair to the right and that moves along one position each time you push the material. That’s how the material counts to ten.”
The rubber block is an example of a mechanical metamaterial: a material whose properties are determined not only by its composition but also by its structure. Van Hecke’s group investigates how simple materials can be used to process information, a bit like a computer …. learn more
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