(Inside Science) — Winged microchips each about the size of a grain of sand may be the smallest-ever artificial flying structures, devices that could one day help monitor air pollution and airborne disease.
The new chips, or "microfliers," are not equipped with motors or engines. Instead, much like a maple tree's propeller seed, they fly on the wind, twirling like helicopter blades through the air toward the ground.
By analyzing the aerodynamics of wind-dispersed seeds and modeling how air flows around these microfliers, the scientists pinpointed the ideal structures for slow, controlled flight. Their design helps ensure the microfliers disperse over a broad area and stay aloft for a long time to better monitor the air. "Our flight dynamics, in fact, exceed those observed in nature, and we can build structures with much smaller sizes, into the submillimeter length scale," said study co-senior author John Rogers, a materials scientist at ...
