A STRETCHY liquid crystal is intriguing physicists with its bizarre tendency to swim away from light. This unique property could one day be used to make robot submarines propelled by light beams, its inventor suggests.
Peter Palffy-Muhoray of Kent State University in Ohio and his colleagues at the University of Freiburg in Germany and New York University were experimenting with various types of rubber-like liquid crystal, which they already knew would change shape when placed in a beam of laser light. This happens because the molecules in a liquid crystal tend to line up in one direction and in the…
