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Tiny Robots Powered by Living Muscle Cells
voma writes "Tiny robots powered by living muscle have been created by scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles.
The devices were formed by "growing" rat cells on microscopic silicon chips, the researchers report in the journal Nature Materials.
Less than a millimetre long, the miniscule robots can move themselves without any external source of power. Muscles like these could be used in a host of microscopic devices - even to drive miniature electrical generators to power computer chips."
No food, no light, no oxygen, no electricity?
Maybe "voma" is a pseudonym for Laura Didio.
Can devices like this potentially use chemicals in blood to generate mechanical energy and then electricity so as to replace pacemakers? It'd be nice if those things had indefinite battery life rather than what they have now, what, 9 years?
Of course, I'm surprised that you couldn't just do a mechanical generator for that. Or have they?
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It's the end of my comment as I know it and I feel fine.
The abstract from the paper
Current procedures for manual extraction of mature muscle tissue in micromechanical structures are time consuming and can damage the living components. To overcome these limitations, we have devised a new system for assembling muscle-powered microdevices based on judicious manipulations of materials phases and interfaces. In this system, individual cells grow and self-assemble into muscle bundles that are integrated with micromechanical structures and can be controllably released to enable free movement. Having realized such an assembly with cardiomyocytes we demonstrate two potential applications: a force transducer able to characterize in situ the mechanical properties of muscle and a self-assembled hybrid (biotic/abiotic) microdevice that moves as a consequence of collective cooperative contraction of muscle bundles. Because the fabrication of silicon microdevices is independent of the subsequent assembly of muscle cells, this system is highly versatile and may lead to the integration of cells and tissues with a variety of other microstructures.
"even to drive miniature electrical generators to power computer chips."
This makes it seem as if muscle cells can act as a source of free power. I'm sure the above plan would work, but only for a very short time... Just as human beings can run "without an external power source," until we need to recharge (i.e. eat). We use sugars to produce ATP which gives us the energy we need. But the problem is that our bodies contain all of the necessary facilities to convert sugar into ATP quickly and efficiently, while lone muscle cells on a computer chip do not. They would eventually be forced either to remove the cells and replace them with new ones, or to find a way of recharging the cells, which sounds like a project in itself.
* Olaserov is in the process of thinking up a signature.
Well, for a start they should use this to control it :)
Why is the word "growing" in quotes in the posted article? Did the scientists not actually grow the muscles?
Muscles would be great replacements for all sorts of electrically powered motors/servos out there. There's a lot of chemical energy stored in organic material, so switching over to artificial muscle based machines would virtually solve the battery problem faced in so many disciplines right now. Batteries are heavy, don't really store that much energy, and require toxic chemical considerations both in their manufacture and disposal. Artificial muscle on the other hand can extract very easily the energy contained within common foods/organic paste and only create waste by-products that have less impact on the environment because they're biodegradable. :)
Just another step towards Robotech
Shh.
A lot of people complain that this is playing god but household dust is mainly just dead skin cells. Does that make the grooves between the keys on my laptop the killing fields? Nope. People say our brains are wet machines. I think we should change perspective. Machines have been "wet" for billions of years and we come along and make some robots and religions and add an adjective to label the norm. But then how would we label a non biological sentient robot with a drinking problem? Extra dry?
What if Digg added local news and a Slashdot inspired comment karma system? ---
http://houndwire.com
A young adult generates 1/2 watt per pound of body weight sitting, and four times that in exercise. Thats why they have to air condition auditoriums even in the winter with hundreds of those "light bulbs" sitting there.