Skip to main content

Scientists Discover Way to Send Information into Black Holes Without Using Energy

3 comments

This Artificial Skin Give Burn Victims Back Their Sense Of Touch & Detect Things Real Skin Cannot

Imagine a world where people who have lost their sense of touch could feel the warmth of the sun again—or even sense things human skin never could, like magnetic fields or distant vibrations.

This might sound like science fiction, but researchers at the University of Connecticut and the University of Toronto are turning it into reality. In a groundbreaking study published in Advanced Materials, they introduced a new kind of artificial skin that can detect pressure, temperature, sound, and even magnetic fields—all thanks to the power of iron oxide nanoparticles.

This new “smart skin” doesn’t just aim to restore sensation for burn victims or amputees—it could eventually enhance human senses far beyond their natural limits.

The Breakthrough: Giving Artificial Skin the Power to Feel

Our skin is the body’s largest organ and one of its most important sensory tools. It lets us sense pressure, pain, heat, cold, and texture—information that keeps us safe and connected to the world. But when someone loses their skin due to severe burns or injury, they also lose this vital sensory input.

Traditional prosthetic limbs or skin grafts can restore some appearance or basic protection, but they don’t restore feeling. The new artificial skin developed by the Connecticut–Toronto team could change that.

Researchers Islam Mosa and James Rusling from the University of Connecticut, working with Abdelsalam Ahmed at the University of Toronto, designed a sensor system that mimics how biological skin interprets environmental changes.

They used a clever mix of chemistry, materials science, and electrical engineering to give synthetic skin something that has long been missing—a sense of touch.

How It Works: Turning Movement Into Electricity

At the heart of this innovation is a simple but powerful idea: movement creates electricity.

The researchers built the artificial skin using silicone tubes filled with a liquid containing iron-oxide nanoparticles—tiny magnetic particles less than a billionth of a meter across. These tubes are then wrapped in copper wire.

When something presses on the silicone layer or when it experiences vibration, sound, or temperature changes, the liquid inside starts to move. As the fluid shifts, it rubs against the silicone’s inner walls. This friction produces an electrical current, which the copper wire detects and sends as an electrical signal.

Each kind of stimulus—whether it’s pressure, heat, sound, or even a magnetic field—moves the liquid in a unique way, creating a distinct electrical signature. The skin, in effect, “feels” the difference.

“The mechanism generates a sensation similar to how our real skin senses the world,” said lead researcher Islam Mosa. “But the exciting part is that it can also sense things beyond human capability.”

Going Beyond Human Senses

While the initial goal of this project was to help burn victims regain their sense of touch, the technology turned out to be capable of much more.

Human skin is a marvel of evolution, but it does have limits. We can’t detect magnetic fields. We can’t sense certain frequencies of sound waves or faint vibrations through water or air.

The researchers wondered—what if their synthetic skin could go further?

It turns out it can.

Because the iron-oxide nanoparticles respond not only to movement but also to magnetic forces, the artificial skin could detect when it’s near strong magnetic fields. That means it could act as an early warning system for people who work around high-powered magnets, electrical generators, or MRI machines.

Imagine a construction worker’s glove made from this material—it could sense magnetic interference or vibrations before dangerous machinery even makes contact.

Potential Life-Saving Applications

The researchers also discovered that the skin is waterproof, which opens up another fascinating possibility—safety applications in aquatic environments.

For instance, the artificial skin could serve as a child safety sensor, alerting parents if their child accidentally falls into a swimming pool. The skin would feel the change in pressure and vibration underwater and instantly trigger an alarm.

Because the sensor works based on movement and fluid dynamics rather than delicate electronics, it can function even in harsh or wet conditions where other materials might fail.

In the future, this technology could be used in:

  • Prosthetic limbs that allow amputees to feel texture, heat, and pressure.

  • Wearable suits for firefighters or divers to detect dangerous temperatures or currents.

  • Robotics, giving machines the ability to “feel” their surroundings with precision.

  • Medical sensors that can detect changes in a patient’s condition by monitoring vibrations or temperature shifts on their skin.

The Science Behind the Sensation

Let’s break down what’s happening inside this artificial skin on a deeper level.

When the fluid inside the silicone tube moves, two key physical effects come into play:

  1. Frictional Electricity (Triboelectric Effect):
    The fluid rubbing against the silicone surface creates a tiny charge—much like how you generate static electricity by rubbing a balloon on your hair.

  2. Electromagnetic Induction:
    Because the fluid contains iron-oxide nanoparticles, it behaves like a conductor. When the fluid moves inside the copper coil, it induces an electrical current, similar to how a generator works.

These combined effects allow the sensor to produce readable electrical signals without any external power source. That means the skin is self-powered—a huge advantage for long-term use in prosthetics or robotics.

Different stimuli cause different movement patterns:

  • Pressure compresses the fluid.

  • Vibration creates rhythmic oscillations.

  • Temperature affects the viscosity (thickness) of the fluid.

  • Magnetic fields cause the nanoparticles to realign or move in specific ways.

This results in distinct electrical “fingerprints” for each type of sensation, enabling a controller or AI system to interpret exactly what’s being felt.

Bridging Biology and Technology

The beauty of this invention lies in how closely it parallels nature’s own design.

Human skin uses a network of nerves and receptors to translate physical sensations into electrical signals that the brain interprets. The artificial skin works in a similar way—except that the signals are read by computers or electronic interfaces.

This means the technology could easily be integrated with prosthetic limbs, where sensors send signals to a user’s nervous system or directly to a computer that interprets them as touch.

It’s a major step toward biohybrid systems—where living biology and synthetic materials merge seamlessly.

“It’s not just about mimicking human skin,” said co-researcher James Rusling. “It’s about enhancing what human skin can do.”

Restoring Touch for Burn Victims

Beyond futuristic robotics or wearable sensors, this innovation holds profound emotional and medical value.

For burn survivors, one of the most devastating consequences isn’t just the scarring—it’s the loss of sensation. When the nerve endings in the skin are destroyed, patients can no longer feel pain, heat, or texture. This makes them vulnerable to re-injury because they can’t sense danger.

Scar tissue may protect the body, but it lacks the sensory network of healthy skin. The new artificial skin could give these individuals a chance to regain one of the most human experiences—the sense of touch.

Imagine being able to once again feel the warmth of holding someone’s hand, the coolness of water, or the gentle pressure of a hug. For many burn victims, that could be life-changing.

Challenges Ahead: Making It More Human

While the research is incredibly promising, it’s still in its early stages.

Right now, the artificial skin is made using tubular structures that can sense movement, but it needs to be flattened and flexible enough to behave like real skin. The next step for the research team is to refine the material so that it can cover large, irregular surfaces like a hand or arm.

They also plan to test how the skin responds to extreme temperatures and long-term wear, since real human skin must constantly handle these stresses.

But given what they already know about how temperature affects fluid movement and electrical conductivity, the researchers are confident they’ll observe clear and useful signals.

Another challenge is integrating this artificial skin with human nerve systems. While the electrical signals it generates are similar to those in biological nerves, translating them into something the human brain can interpret is a complex problem that neuroscience and biomedical engineering are actively working on.

The Bigger Picture: A Future of Enhanced Humans

What makes this research so exciting is not just its medical potential, but its implications for human enhancement.

For decades, technology has been helping us see farther (telescopes), hear better (microphones), and think faster (computers). Now, we might be entering an age where we can feel more—where our sense of touch becomes superhuman.

This kind of “electronic skin” could one day let humans:

  • Sense invisible electromagnetic fields.

  • Detect ultrasonic vibrations before earthquakes or machinery failures.

  • Feel temperature changes too subtle for regular skin to notice.

  • Interface directly with robots or digital systems through tactile feedback.

It’s the dawn of a new sensory age—where the boundary between biology and technology begins to blur.

A Touch of Humanity: Why Feeling Matters

While the idea of “superhuman” senses is thrilling, it’s important to remember why touch is so essential in the first place.

Touch is the most personal and emotional of our senses. It connects us to others in ways vision and sound cannot. It helps babies bond with parents, builds trust between people, and grounds us in our physical world.

Losing that sense can make someone feel disconnected not just from their surroundings—but from themselves.

So when scientists work to restore touch through artificial means, they’re doing more than developing technology. They’re restoring humanity.

From Lab to Life: What’s Next

The next few years will determine how far and fast this technology advances.

Researchers are now focusing on:

  • Making the material thinner and more flexible.

  • Testing its response to heat and cold.

  • Ensuring it can withstand long-term use without degradation.

  • Developing software and algorithms to interpret the electrical signals accurately.

If successful, the artificial skin could move from laboratory experiments to clinical applications within a decade.

Collaboration between material scientists, biomedical engineers, and neuroscientists will be key. So will ethical discussions—especially if the technology begins to enhance human abilities beyond natural limits.

Conclusion: The Future Feels Bright

From a simple silicone tube filled with nanoparticles, a revolution may be unfolding—one that could let us feel again after loss, or feel more than we ever could before.

This new artificial skin is more than a scientific curiosity. It represents a bridge between the physical and digital worlds, between healing and enhancement, between being human and becoming something greater.

Whether it’s helping burn victims regain a lost sense, giving prosthetic limbs real sensation, or allowing humans to detect the invisible forces around them, one thing is clear:

The future of touch is electric.

And thanks to this breakthrough, that future feels closer—and more human—than ever before.

Reference: Ahmed, I. Hassan, I. M. Mosa, E. Elsanadidy, M. Sharafeldin, J. F. Rusling, S. Ren, Adv. Mater. 2019, 31, 1807201. https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.201807201

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular

Scientists Discover Way to Send Information into Black Holes Without Using Energy

For years, scientists believed that adding even one qubit (a unit of quantum information) to a black hole needed energy. This was based on the idea that a black hole’s entropy must increase with more information, which means it must gain energy. But a new study by Jonah Kudler-Flam and Geoff Penington changes that thinking. They found that quantum information can be teleported into a black hole without adding energy or increasing entropy . This works through a process called black hole decoherence , where “soft” radiation — very low-energy signals — carry information into the black hole. In their method, the qubit enters the black hole while a new pair of entangled particles (like Hawking radiation) is created. This keeps the total information balanced, so there's no violation of the laws of physics. The energy cost only shows up when information is erased from the outside — these are called zerobits . According to Landauer’s principle, erasing information always needs energy. But ...
3 comments
Read more

Black Holes That Never Dies

Black holes are powerful objects in space with gravity so strong that nothing can escape them. In the 1970s, Stephen Hawking showed that black holes can slowly lose energy by giving off tiny particles. This process is called Hawking radiation . Over time, the black hole gets smaller and hotter, and in the end, it disappears completely. But new research by Menezes and his team shows something different. Using a theory called Loop Quantum Gravity (LQG) , they studied black holes with quantum corrections. In their model, the black hole does not vanish completely. Instead, it stops shrinking when it reaches a very small size. This leftover is called a black hole remnant . They also studied something called grey-body factors , which affect how much energy escapes from a black hole. Their findings show that the black hole cools down and stops losing mass once it reaches a minimum mass . This new model removes the idea of a “singularity” at the center of the black hole and gives us a better ...
Post a Comment
Read more

How Planetary Movements Might Explain Sunspot Cycles and Solar Phenomena

Sunspots, dark patches on the Sun's surface, follow a cycle of increasing and decreasing activity every 11 years. For years, scientists have relied on the dynamo model to explain this cycle. According to this model, the Sun's magnetic field is generated by the movement of plasma and the Sun's rotation. However, this model does not fully explain why the sunspot cycle is sometimes unpredictable. Lauri Jetsu, a researcher, has proposed a new approach. Jetsu’s analysis, using a method called the Discrete Chi-square Method (DCM), suggests that planetary movements, especially those of Earth, Jupiter, and Mercury, play a key role in driving the sunspot cycle. His theory focuses on Flux Transfer Events (FTEs), where the magnetic fields of these planets interact with the Sun’s magnetic field. These interactions could create the sunspots and explain other solar phenomena like the Sun’s magnetic polarity reversing every 11 years. The Sun, our closest star, has been a subject of scient...
Post a Comment
Read more