Springs made from rusty metallic glass could power nanorobots

Tiny tubes of rusty glass are surprisingly springy, which could prove useful in powering nanorobotic devices.

Most metals oxidise when left in the air – when this happens in iron, it is called rusting – which can change their properties, such as making them more brittle or less dense.

Yong Yang at City University of Hong Kong and his colleagues found that when they oxidised copper and zirconium nanotubes of metallic glass, which…