Platinum Nanomuscles Developed

An anonymous reader writes "The Institut für Nanotechnologie in Duisburg 'reports in the latest issue of the Journal Science that they have been able to use a tiny electric charge to flex a piece of 'nanoporous' platinum - an artificial sandwich of platinum atoms riddled with tiny holes. Nanomuscles weigh just one gram but can lift 140 grams, and are preferred to electric motors as they are far cheaper to produce: 50 cents each compared to US$300. They also make less noise and operate more smoothly. They could one day replace most small electric motors in toys, cameras and other devices.'"

Comments

OMG!!

[Timesprout]

one medical company is investigating nanomuscles in penile implants.

I dont believe this, now Slashdot is providing spammers with material. What is the world coming to !!

Re:OMG!!

[hashwolf]

"Nanomuscles weigh just one gram but can lift 140 grams" ..... "one medical company is investigating nanomuscles in penile implants" Spammers, take note.

Hmmm...

[BigNumber]

So basically, the 6 million dollar man was overpriced?

Where do we sign up to become super-strength wielding platinum cyborgs?

Predictable SPAM

[pmz]

How long until "Platinum" electronically enhanced condoms are offered along with the "male enhancement pills"? I can hear them now...Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...bzt..zzt...Ahhhh.

I've had nanomuscle tech for ages...

[NickFusion]

that's why I joined the gym.

Only a few more steps...

[Randolpho]

Ok, so they've got nanomuscles... just a few mores steps until they have macromuscles, and we can all start stoping around in Mechs. :D

Re:Only a few more steps...

[Anonymous Coward]

and we can all start stoping around in Mechs. :D

I didn't know Mechs had an affinity for mining ore. ;)

(I guess they need to to get the platinum they need to build more muscle.)

Re:Only a few more steps...

[Randolpho]

Oh, sure, mock my tyop that I can't change!

Re:Only a few more steps...

[Anonymous Coward]

Did you ever mod someone down because of their .sig?

I have now.

Missing information

[Paddyish]

This could do wonders for many technologies. A 1:140 ratio in lifting is quite amazing. However, I see a couple of issues with large scale applications. I recently attended a seminar in which the speaker talked about how nano technology adheres to a completely different set of physical laws, since atomic attractions and various other forces start to play a huge role as size decreases. That makes development and improvement of the technology clunky and slow, and sometimes forces developers to drop it alltogether due to unforseen hurdles.

What I want to know, is exactly how big and how powerful can these be? The article says it takes 100 volts to make one flex! That puts a damper on building any type of large networks...And what kind of cycle life do they have? If they work for 100 flexes and then break...that's not terribly useful. They have a ways to go, methinks.

Re:Missing information

[Scaebor]

at a mass of one gram i very much doubt that we're anywhere near the kind of small scale necessary for quantum effects (which i presume are the "completely different set of physical laws" you speak of") to take effect in this technology. For such laws to take over would mean a decrease in the size of these muscles by many many orders of magnitude, something that, with their forseen purpose of replacing small electrical motors, i don't see being on the "roadmap" of nanomuscles, at least of this variety

Re:Missing information

[ee_moss]

To flex, they require a large electrical current - up to 100 volts - which is then converted to heat energy.

"The article says it takes 100 volts to make one flex!"

What's amazing is that they say it takes 100 volts of current to get it going, and those aren't even in the same units!

Electronically illiterate points aside, if they meant 100 Amps of current, then ya, that's probably a lot of energy. Enough to kill. 30,000 Volts, though, can be easily produced by a simple 9V batter and a couple of voltage doublers, like in the case of a stun gun.

The fact that the article says that a lot of the energy is going to heat tells me that they probably really are pulling a lot of amps at a relatively large voltage. These things could double as a moving stove-top. Alright that was stupid..

As my gift to you, I'm gonna shut my mouth.

Re:Missing information

[Hidyman]

100 Volts really mean anything without the amount of current it consumes. The only thing that voltage tells you is potential.

good for some

[Joe the Lesser]

are far cheaper to produce: 50 cents each compared to US$300

Of course, whoever patents this will sell them for 50 bucks at least.

Is it just the small caption print on my browser?

[OwnerOfWhinyCat]

Or did it look to anyone else that Dr. Jörg Weissmüller from the Institut für Nanotechnologie in Duisburg bore a remarkable resemblence to Tarzan?

These ones don't need the 100 volts...

[OwnerOfWhinyCat]

That was the previous Nitinol technology.

The real drawback to the old Nickel-Titanium "muscle springs" was their lousy cyclic rate. Even with a fan on it, you couldn't get a spring with a 7 o.z., 1 inch throw to retract the distance it traveled in under 15 seconds. For most apps. this was just too slow. Now with less heat to bleed off and lower voltages, the cyclic rate could become useful. Motors with no brushes or bearings would be awefully useful in scads of gagets.

The application that springs to mind is in solar heating/cooling systems, where valves and pumps under computer control have piles of moving, rubbing parts could be replaced by parts that would work silently, and almost never wear out. Submersible pumps with no seals to erode would be nice too.

Re:These ones don't need the 100 volts...

[GnarlyNome]

OBoy now I can build a really small model airplane. (it would be great for servos)

Misleading article text

[Spamalamadingdong]

I couldn't help but notice this:

Nanomuscles weigh just one gram but can lift 140 grams...

I could make a one-gram device lift 140 kilograms, if I only had to lift it a tiny distance (like a millimeter). This is why ants can lift such "large" weights compared to their own; they are lifting by millimeters rather than meters, and the mechanical advantage overcomes their other disadvantages.

It sure would be nice to have science reporters who actually understand the science, and quit leaving holes like this in their reporting.

Re:Misleading article text

[Anonymous Coward]

There's also the comparision to "300 dollar electric motors". I bought a 20 dollar motor meant for RC cars that would wipe the floor with that thing at 6 volts.

Maybe the technology they describe is useful, but the misleading descriptions cast a bad light on the whole enterprise.

Re:Misleading article text

[jdray]

Well, if you can exert 140 grams of force over a millimeter of distance, applying that to a lever a millimeter from a fulcrum should be able to lift 20 grams a distance of (taking off shoes to count toes) 5mm on a 7mm moment arm on the other side of the fulcrum. I think.

Mind you, I'm figuring all this out in my (suspect) head while watching CSI, so can someone corroborate/refute this?

Help?!

[limekiller4]

Hi to everyone who reads this.

Can someone please clue me in? I happened to look in the "older stuff" area and found this article. It doesn't appear on my front page. I'm logged in. Checked my settings, I have *nothing* whatsoever checked off in the "Exclude Stories from the Homepage" checkbox area. So I don't know how to make them actually appear.

Further, the things that I am apparently never seeing are things I'd never have checked off to not see.

Help?

Thanks in advance.

Re:Help?!

[Only in the dark]

This is posted in the Science section. It won't show up on your main page, unless you set it to do so. You need to choose the option to collapse the sections (this will post all sections on the main page)

Just my 1/8th a penny.

Re:Help?!

[limekiller4]

Thanks much, Only.

Re:Is it just the small caption print on my browse

[Anonymous Coward]

It's the small caption print.

Electric current

[Oriumpor]

Nerve endings....
Nano Muscles....
Made of Platinum (which many people's bodies can heal around)...

Sounds like implant technology to me. Maybe in 20 years people with Muscular Dystrophy will be superhumans.

But then again, we can't even reproduce a nervous system.

Re:Electric current

[badmike2]

Perhaps this *is* or *is leading to* a kind of implant technology. But hopefully not. Even if a person's body can heal around the platinum and not reject it, the individual's bloodstream will still be absorbing a heavy metal. I won't put the cart before the horse, but we can look at least 2 places in history where the assimilation of heavy metals into the bloodstream on a routine basis resulted in a collapse of civilization due to insanity being prevalent amongst the populace. The most notable, in my limited opinion, would be the Roman empire. The nobility and other wealthy classes are largely blamed, but that is only because they were high-profile. The fact is that everybody's plates, cups, bowls, etc, were being crafted from heavy metals. Heavy metal gets absorbed by your blood and then disintegrates the fiber that connects the right and left side of your brain. It doesn't take long. Less than a year of regular absorption in small quantities. Now, not everybody is going to have a nano-implant, and our current civilization is already insane from what-I-do-not-know, so this could all be moot. But I do not see, in a long-term sense, any heavy metals being successfully used for nanotechnology as it applies to human physiology. My guess is that it will be plastic and ceramics (although metal, ceramic is typically not a heavy metal) being used for such purposes. In fact, if anybody can lead me to some info, if there actually even is any, about the use of ceramics in nanotechnology, I would be very interested. And appreciative.......

Re:Is it just the small caption print on my browse

[Master of Transhuman]

It's the small print. That WAS Johnny Weismuller you saw at the site. Somebody obviously had the same idea you did re the scientist's name and the connection with muscles...

Cheap materials

[Drummer_Dan]

Nanomuscles weigh just one gram... are far cheaper to produce: 50 cents.

Last time I checked, platinum costs about $20/gram

Re:Cheap materials

[esampson]

The article didn't say they were solid platinum. The muscles are composed of platinum atoms sandwiched between two layers of some other kind of substance.

That said, I'm still sceptical about .50 a gram.

Re:Cheap materials

[pseudonymouse]

The article is very brief, and I don't think it's very clear on the science.

an artificial sandwich of platinum atoms riddled with tiny holes.

At first glance it looked like the atoms were supposed to have tiny holes :), but they never give any indication of how big the 'nanoparticles' are or what else besides platinum is in the 'sandwich'. Perhaps they're saying that it's so porous that it's mostly 'gap'?

The German team were able to achieve the same degree of movement as previous nanomuscles but without generating large volumes of heat. This is because their platinum nanoparticles have a much larger surface area that is electro-chemically accessible; this enables the alloy to store a large electric charge and yet only require a few volts to flex.

Maybe I'm just tired, but I don't really follow this. That is, I get the large surface area, but I don't get what exactly is reacting with the surface or what makes the material 'flex'.

Nanomuscles weigh just one gram but can lift 140 grams, and are preferred to electric motors as they are far cheaper to produce: 50 cents each compared to US$300.

For a pricetag of $300, I assume this would be a 'nanotech' electric motor, but are they saying such a motor would also be one gram and lift 140g?

The article refers to the (presumably more thorough :) article in Science magazine: Muscles Made from Metal by Ray H. Baughman, Science 2003 April 11; 300: 268-269, but I couldn't access it.

Re:Cheap materials

[Muhammar]

This article is what you get when you get the hype+excitement sales pitch (for suckers-investors) re-told by an oh-so-bright journalist.

How about remedial physics for reporters

[Catskul]

These news agencies should not let their reporters cover a science/tech related story if they cant grasp the basic concepts. They are just spreading their ignorence to the readers.

To flex, they require a large electrical current - up to 100 volts - which is then converted to heat energy.

Volts is not current! I can produce 100 volts easily from a small battery and an apprpriate circut, but not at sufficient current.

Efficient nanomuscles are in great demand because they can generate an enormous amount of energy for their weight and size.

They do not generate energy. They generate force.

Re:How about remedial physics for reporters

[Spamalamadingdong]

These news agencies should not let their reporters cover a science/tech related story if they cant grasp the basic concepts. They are just spreading their ignorence to the readers.

I like that idea. Wait, no; I really like that idea. And maybe make the articles hyperlink to a glossary entry for each term the first time it is used.

Bad writing leading to additional confusion on the part of the public has been one of my perennial complaints since the 1980's. Apparently, it's gotten to the point where people have to list energy (not power) consumption in "kilowatts" (not KWH) because the public is confused by the correct usage.

Re:How about remedial physics for reporters

[Idarubicin]

You missed one. Grams are not a unit of force. Under SI (mks) force is measured in newtons. Older individuals that grew up under cgs may also use dynes. (1 newton = 1E5 dynes). Grams are a measure of mass.

So the article text should indicate that a 1 gram nanomuscle can exert 1.4 newtons of force. Quite impressive, actually.

Embarrassing that 'science' reporters don't know better. Anyone who has taken a high school physics course should be able to use those units correctly.

Obligatory reference to The Onion

[multiplexo]

http://www.theonion.com/onion3123/hawkingexo.html

Dino DeLaurentis is who Ed Wood would have been with a million dollar budget.

"nanomuscle"

[g4dget]

That's actually a trademark and product from an existing company (nanomuscle.com). They make the older generation of actuators mentioned in the article.

However, $0.50 is probably pie-in-the-sky. That's also what the current Nanomuscle actuators should cost, but in real life, they seem to be more like $20

100 volts isn't a damper at all

[n1ywb]

Dude, bone up on your electronics. 100 volts is nothing. Your Indiglo (tm) backlight uses THOUSANDS of volts. The only thing that limites the amount of voltage a device can use is it's insulation, and we have some pretty damn cheap and good insulating materials kicking around. The real limitation is current, since conductors can only carry a limited amount of it, and high currents lead to losses through resistance. The higher the voltage the lower the current, the less loss due to resistance, as per Ohm's law. So high voltage is a GOOD thing.

Re:100 volts isn't a damper at all

[Paddyish]

Hmmm yes. Previous post was written in a hazy...state. Disregard my previous voltage comments :oD

Update...

[Catskul]

I sent email to the contact address at the bottom of the page, and enumerated as well as gave my opinion about the mistakes. Supprisingly, I received an email back with an explanation that the errors were not the reporter's, they had been introduced during editing. Also the reply said that they had fixed the errors : ) (the article has been updated, take a look).