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.'"

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[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.