Pressure-sensitive paint might be able to warn when a bridge is about to collapse. Engineers at the VTT Technical Research Centre in Helsinki, Finland, added piezoelectric crystals, which produce a voltage when stressed, to a resin which was painted on the underside of a steel footbridge (Smart Materials and Structures, vol 16, p 2571). Electrodes at each end of the bridge detected changes in voltage as people crossed. The crystals could be used to detect pressure changes due to structural flaws.
A dexterous violin-playing robot could soon lend a hand with fiddly chores. Created by Toyota, the 1.5-metre-tall humanoid…
