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A low-voltage, low-power method of electrically deforming a liquid-metal droplet via the direct manipulation of its surface tension is presented. By imposing a quasi-planar geometry on the liquid metal, its sensitivity to electrocapillary actuation is increased by more than a factor of 40. This heightened responsiveness allows the liquid metal to be deformed at rates exceeding 120 mm/s, greater than an order of magnitude faster than existing techniques for electrical deformation. Significantly, it is demonstrated how this process can be combined with voltage-controlled oxide growth on the surface of non-toxic, gallium-based liquid metals to reversibly form and maintain arbitrary, high-energy shapes.

There is accumulating evidence that exposure to radio frequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF) from mobile telephones or their base station could have detrimental biological effects. Therefore, the possible cyto- and genotoxic effects after 4 hour exposure of tobacco shoots to 900 MHz EMF were studied.The levels of lipid peroxidation and oxidation of proteins as well as damage to DNA increased in response to EMF comparing to control values. These results suggest that short-term exposure to 900 MHz EMF has genotoxic effect but harshly interrupts plasma biomembrane integrity as well. Plant model system proved to be sensitive biomarkers of RF-EMF exposure.