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ScienceTake | The Spore Machine
In a leap of the imagination, researchers managed to use bacterial spores to tap the power of evaporation.
Up. Down. Up. Down. ((Show the lifting video)) That’s the power of evaporation — and SPORES. These spores are dormant, dried out bacteria that expand with moisture and contract when dry. Each is about a micron long — that’s one twenty-five thousandth of an inch. To harness these tiny engines scientists at Columbia University made a liquid paste of spores and painted it on thin plastic tape. As the spores absorb and lose water that comes from evaporation, the sections of tape act like muscles. They can lift weight or open and close small shutters. They can even power a wheel. Spore muscles hold tiny blue weights away from the wheel’s axis when they expand in a moist chamber. They bring them closer when they shrink in dry air. The shift in weight drives the wheel. Although the car they powered with this system is a toy, the idea is big. And eventually, the machines could be too.
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