Researchers have designed a new type of Rubik's Cube that is not only extra fun to play with but could also help in storing and detecting information for monitoring health conditions.
The squishy cube is built using self-healing coloured hydrogel blocks. Similar to the standard 3x3x3 Rubik's Cube, the squishy version can also be rotated, with the structure locking into place after 24 hours, an official release on The University of Texas at Austin notes.
Researchers from the US and China who built the cube are exploring ways to encode information into the cube similar to QR codes that could help monitor patient's chemical changes in conditions such as diabetes. The squishy Rubik's Cube can form 43 quintillion configurations, enabling a vast amount of data storage.