Researchers and manufacturers alike both have a lot of hope for self-assembly, a new school of technological development that could one day lead to items that build themselves — or at least build their own parts. The idea is that by creating smart structures of nanoparticles, scientists could one day create substances that take on predetermined shapes when they’re exposed to an outside energy source like a magnetic field or electric current. Today, researchers at Paris Tech and Aalto University report in the journal Science that they’ve developed a technique that lets them create shapes from magnetic fluids in two flavors — static, where the fluid is at rest, and dynamic, where energy is fed through the substance.
via Geekosystem
