Engineers and scientist from Caltech and ETH Zurich were able to construct a new material that   can feel temperature differences , which could   possibly   be used in prosthetic limbs to play as a sore artificial skin .

The material , as report inScience Robotics , uses a chemical mechanism that   is akin   to the pitfall organ in vipers . The research worker were studying semisynthetic woods when they discovered that a molecule , pectin , play a part in generating an electric impulse when exposed to changes in temperature .

The team later developed a pliant film of pectin and water that is slight and pellucid . The material can be made as thin as 20 micrometer ( about the diameter of a human fuzz ) and is sensitive to changes in temperature that fall between 10 and 55 ° deoxycytidine monophosphate ( 50 and 131 ° atomic number 9 ) .

" Pectin is wide used in the intellectual nourishment diligence as a jellifying broker ; it ’s what you use to make jam , " senior author Chiara Daraio , professor of mechanical engineering and applied physical science at Caltech , said in astatement . " So it ’s easy to obtain and also very cheap . "

Pectin molecules are long chains weakly bonded together and they contain calcium ions . When temperatures increase , the chain breaks and the ion are costless to move . Either the higher number of free ions or their newfound freedom ( the investigator suspect both ) allow for the material to have a reduced electrical resistance .

The textile can detect changes as subtle as 0.01 ° C ( 0.018 ° F ) over the temperature range   –   almost 10 time more sensitive than previously developed electronic skin and 100 times more responsive .

And it ’s not just for contrived pelt .   The cloth could also be used as a smart wearing apparel wound . Since infections raise temperature in the   organic structure , the material can be used as a   signal to aesculapian practitioner that something is affecting the combat injury .

The investigator are also looking into   extending its   capacity to higher temperatures , not just for verbatim human software but for use in   manufacture , consumer electronics , and even in robots .