Actuator materials producing rotation are rare and demonstrated rotations are small, though rotary systems like electric motors,
pumps, turbines and compressors are widely needed and utilized. Present motors can be rather complex and, therefore, difficult
to miniaturize. We show that a short electrolyte-filled twist spun carbon nanotube yarn, which is much thinner than a human
hair, functions as a torsional artificial muscle in a simple three-electrode electrochemical system, providing a reversible
15,000° rotation and 590 revolutions/minute. A hydrostatic actuation mechanism, like for nature’s muscular hydrostats, explains
the simultaneous occurrence of lengthwise contraction and torsional rotation during the yarn volume increase caused by electrochemical
double-layer charge injection. Use of a torsional yarn muscle as a mixer for a fluidic chip is demonstrated.
duncan barker on 24 Feb 11"In November 2010, the scientific journal Icarus published a paper by astrophysicists John Matese and Daniel Whitmire, who proposed the existence of a binary companion to our sun, larger than Jupiter, in the long-hypothesized "Oort cloud" -- a faraway repository of small icy bodies at the edge of our solar system. The researchers use the name "Tyche" for the hypothetical planet. Their paper argues that evidence for the planet would have been recorded by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE)."
