This is some amazing stuff the chemical engineers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln have created.
"The new device — a film made from alternating nano-layers of conducting gold and semiconducting cadmium sulfide "
"it self-assembles at room temperature and is flexible enough to cover complex shapes."
It is going to aid in cancer tumor removal,by letting the surgeon cut it all out & not leave any traces that can regrow and culture all over again.
Complete removal has always been a barrier to surgical removal as one cannot tell if the cancer is COMPLETELY removed.
One cancer cell left in a person can restart the who proccess of
"cells that cannot their growth off" to start back up,this often makes surgery a last resort,because if any is left in the body,it often spreads the condition due to little pieces getting into the bloodstream & traveling to other places.This technology soon shall aid "surgeons to tell by "touch" at the level of a single layer of cells whether or not they have excised a tumor in its entirety."
In another field ROBOTICS, this stuff shall give robots the ability to feel at levels not found with current engineering knowledge.
"touch sensitivity comparable to that of the human finger, about 50 times more sensitive than devices available today."
Currently robots sense things only thru cameras looking from many angles and then doing math to speculate from the many analyzed angles what is in front of them,this stuff shall give them actual sensory touch to their soon to be fingers.Combined with the existing visual data this new sense shall give them more accurate abilities.
check it out in this article:
http://blogcritics.org/archives/2006/06/09/110455.php
Peace and Aloha