University of St. Thomas undergraduate Samuel Johnson and Dr. AnnMarie Thomas have created what they are dubbing “Squishy Circuits”, conductive circuits made of the Play-Doh. They use a battery pack, an LED and three strips of dough (one insulating and two conductive). The electricity runs through the conductive Play-Doh and lights up the LED light. While normal store bought Play-Doh is actually conductive (who knew?), the research team uses a special homebrewed concoction for added conductivity. You can see it working in the video:
I’m not sure exactly what this can be used for other than Play-Doh funfactorizing* your life up and as a teaching tool, as the advantages of say a wire aren’t really that great or obvious to me, but it’s pretty neato.
via make
*funfactorization: the process of taking ordinary objects and making them freakin’ awesome much like Play-Doh becomes when you put it in a Play-Doh Fun Factory
