Besides adorning Madonna’s new grill and Reeboks designed by a jewelry designer, researchers have found a new use for gold. A research team at the University of Michigan is working to make an elastic gold conductor. At a distance, the material looks just like a piece of gold foil. Thanks to nanotechnology, which allowed the engineers to embed the gold foil with polyurethane, the foil can stretch to four times its size, stretching just like a rubber band. Click past the jump for more on what this means.
Stretchable gold conductors could make wearable technology and iWatches, which sound like science fiction today, feasible in the future. As long as Trinidad James doesn’t buy up all of this elastic gold, the technology could also enable future developments in medicine, including the treatment of brain injuries. While the technology seems far off, the potential for radically changing the technology landscape is obvious.
Via Gizmodo
