‘Liquid Pistons’ May Advance Camera Lenses
TROY, N.Y., Jan. 11, 2011 — A few unassuming drops of liquid locked in a very precise game of "follow the leader" could one day be found in mobile phone cameras, medical imaging equipment, implantable drug delivery devices, and even implantable eye lenses. Engineering researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) have developed liquid pistons, in which oscillating droplets of ferrofluid precisely displace a surrounding liquid. The pulsating motion of the ferrofluid droplets, which are saturated with metal nanop...