Science & Tech · Science & Environment · 4 hrs ago
Motorized cells synchronize into a mechanical time crystal
Researchers in Amsterdam and Birmingham built a sheet of 37 motorized cells that can move in response to their neighbors.
After a shake, the cells began vibrating at different rates, then settled into one shared, slower pulse within seconds.
The team calls the process wave coarsening, as short movements combine into a longer wave across the material.
Physicists call the lasting repeated motion a time crystal, because it repeats a pattern in time, like an ordinary crystal repeats one in space.
In simulations, larger sheets kept their rhythm longer despite noise, suggesting the organized motion can resist small disturbances.
A separate ring-shaped material also produced waves that merged into longer ones, but the researchers did not say what practical applications may follow.
Researchers from the University of Amsterdam and the University of Birmingham built a material whose motorized cells synchronize into a shared rhythm.
After a random jolt, the cells’ fast vibrations merged over a few seconds into a slower pulse across the sheet.
The team describes the synchronized motion as a mechanical time crystal, a system that repeats a motion in time.
The sheet contained 37 cells, each made from three elastic hexagons and a circuit board.
A second experiment using a ring with 24 torque motors also produced waves that merged into longer ones.
- Who
- Researchers at the University of Amsterdam and the University of Birmingham conducted the work.
- What
- They built motorized materials whose initially separate motions synchronized into longer waves and a shared rhythm.
- When
- Not stated
- Where
- The research involved teams at the University of Amsterdam and the University of Birmingham. The 37-cell sheet was tested on a glass plate.
- Why
- The team studied how vibrations in an active material can organize into coordinated motion.
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
The 37-cell sheet began vibrating, with each cell moving at about 30 times a second.
A slower wave grew until the cells moved together on one steady rhythm.
The team repeated the test from different random jolts and observed the distance over which cells moved in step grow.
The team set off waves in a ring carrying 24 torque motors, and short waves merged into longer ones.
- Research teams
- University of Amsterdam and University of Birmingham
- Sheet design
- 37 motorized cells arranged in a honeycomb
- Initial vibration rate
- About 30 times a second
- Repeated tests
- Six, each starting from a different random jolt
- Second material
- An elastic ring carrying 24 torque motors
What people are saying
Our research provides a striking example of spontaneous organization – tiny vibrations organizing themselves until an entire material moves in a coordinated way
Like musicians gradually finding the same beat, individual parts of an active material can organize their movements until the whole structure moves together