The tool that makes itself!

[Singh]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17603235

"We want to have a bag of this material that can form any shape you demand," PhD student Kyle Gilpin told the BBC.

"So if you are in an isolated situation and you need a certain tool, you can tell that to the bag by making a miniaturised model of the tool, drop it into the bag, shake it around - and what you would end up with inside would be a magnified copy of the tool which is usable."

[user24]

So you put a tiny version in, and it creates a large one?

There's a joke about wives in there somewhere. 

Sorry.

[Grant Lamontagne]

I'm sure many wives could make jokes about their husbands too, but we shouldn't go there on a family forum!

Def

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[J Mackrel Jones]

I don't think Motherhood is in any way rivaled by Mr. Gilpin's hopes for replicant sand, sui generis and deus ex machina (or would it be machina ex arena?)

This story is like the one a while back where researchers studied how much you had to shake a box with a rope in it to make knots in the rope.  Didn't say how much to shake the box to untie knots in the rope...

[user24]

I'm sure many wives could make jokes about their husbands too, but we shouldn't go there on a family forum!

I wouldn't dream of it

[Singh]

A fascinating post about science gets derailed.   

[J Mackrel Jones]

Right us, Shamus.
But is this magic sand science or magic?

[nuphoria]

A fascinating post about science gets derailed.   

Mmm hmm.... I think it's pretty incredible myself

Reminds of of the Replicants on Stargate :ahh

[user24]

Sorry  Even so though,

might be ready for market in little more than a decade

Hurry up scientists, I want my magic sand 

[J Mackrel Jones]

The next generation of this stuff will just need the proper Word spoken into it and Voila!  A hammer, or a television set - or a world.  Wait - that's been done.   

[Grant Lamontagne]

Think of what this could do for EDC... all it would take would be for someone to toss the latest Benchmade model into their bag of nano-sand then upload the instruction program to the 'net where others download it, transfer it into their bag'o'bots and pull out the latest Benchmade.  Or Leatherman, or axe....

Interesting concept, but I have to wonder how strong the magnets would be?  If you made a hammer, would it explode on impact?  If you made a screwdriver, could it handle any torque?  If you could make it strong enough then you wouldn't need a toolbox, you could just carry tiny tool replicas on a keyring.  All the tools you could want, all stuffed comfortably in the watch pocket of your jeans.

Def