Normally you would not want your electronics to get wet, because they'll generally get fried. Researchers from the North Carolina State University (NCSU), however, say pish-tosh to that, and have developed memory that’s meant to work when it’s soggy.
The memory device has properties similar to Jell-O--it's soft, pliable, and works extremely well in wet environments. Each memory circuit is made of a conductive piece of gel, made of a liquid alloy of gallium and indium metals and set into water-based gels. It's all housed by a metal alloy that serves as the electrode.
The scientists also applied a special polymer to one side of the gel so that when a negative charge is applied, the positive charge would not just jump to the other side of the metal alloy electrode. This way, the circuit can achieve a conductive and resistive state of zeros and ones; in other words, binary 1-0-1-0-and so on.
NCSU's prototypes are not optimized for high capacities yet. But the researches do think their wet memory can be used with biological sensors, medical monitoring, or interfacing electronics with biological systems. Cybernetics and cyborgs, anyone?
[North Carolina State University via Engadget]
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