Sensational Skin

Skin is the underappreciated hero of our body. It is at once our sensitive, self-healing cocoon, and our unyielding first line of defence against the world. Scientists are trying to emulate its feats for use in prosthetics and robotics. The model pictured is sporting pads of the latest synthetic skin. Tiny nickel particles embedded in flexible plastic allow it to conduct electricity. Pressure applied to the model’s hand, lights up the bulb on its chest. It can distinguish between a light tap and a firm handshake, and can use the changing distances between nickel particles to tell how bent or twisted a joint is. When cut in two the skin can even heal itself: within half an hour, it can put itself back together and be in full working order – essential if it’s going to withstand day-to-day life.

Written by Anthony Lewis

Anthony Lewis

Writer

Ant was the web editor in the early days of BPoD, and has since worked with the UK’s top science organisations as a writer and multimedia producer. He now splits his time between freelance work and managing multimedia at The Lancet.

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• Benjamin Tee
• Bao Research Group, Stanford University, USA
• Reprinted by permission from Macmillan Publishers Ltd: Nature Nanotechnology Copyright 2012
• Published in Nature Nanotechnology