Star Trek's holodeck, that lets people physically interact with a virtual world could be a step closer thanks to a 'universal law of touch', discovered by British scientists. Researchers from the University of Birmingham focused on so-called Rayleigh waves - energy that passes over the surface of objects when they are struck. They found that, when it comes to touch, these waves also travel through layers of skin and bone and are picked up by the body's touch receptor cells. This finding enabled the scientists to pin down a universal law which they can use in future research - dubbed the Universal Law of Touch. He first suggested the mathematics of earthquakes could be used to explore connections between Rayleigh waves and touch.

Source: Daily Mail October 09, 2020 18:01 UTC