Water Droplet Computer Could Someday Diagnose Disease?

Water Droplet Computer Could Someday Diagnose Disease?

It might be the most basic computer — ever concepted.  Powered by — water droplets.
It’s called superhydrophobic droplet logic.
Take a look: Scientists at Finland’s Aalto University have devised a way to convert tiny drops of water — carrying encoded digital information — across a water repellant surface.
Researchers tracked the trails of water and found some surprising — and remarkably predictable properties.  
Science Daily notes…

“Using the tracks, the researchers demonstrated that water droplets could be turned into technology … For example, a memory device was built where water droplets act as bits of digital information … These simple devices are building blocks for computing.”

Yep.  Scientists calibrated the rig, guiding the drops to a specific destinations on the board which then registered each position.  Gizmodo UK was impressed, though not at first.

“Aside from a clump of dirt, water might seem like one of the least technological things to ever exist ever.”

Ah, but not true.
There’s lots of science behind this study.
TG Daily notes, the team used a copper surface coated with silver and chemically modified with a fluorinated compound — that’s super-duper water repellant stuff to you and me.  But that’s just the beginning.

“… when the water droplets are loaded with reactive chemical cargo …. droplet collisions could control the onset of a chemical reaction. Combining this with droplet logic operations could potentially enable programmable chemical reactions where single droplets serve simultaneously as miniature reactors and bits for computing.”

Now Live Science notes, this isn’t going to replace your laptop anytime soon.  But, it opens up a world of computing which doesn’t have a power-cord.

“Water computers join other wild ideas for futuristic computing that have arisen in recent years, such as test tubes filled with DNA or the genetic code of living cells.”

And Geekosystem notes, the possibilities include…

“… use in simple chemical analysis systems that could sniff out pollution or diagnose disease.”