Super-Strong Synthetic Muscles Developed

Too Hot! wrote to mention a BBC article about extremely powerful synthetic muscles. From the article: "The most powerful type, 'shorted fuel cell muscles' convert chemical energy into heat, causing a special shape-memory metal alloy to contract. Turning down the heat allows the muscle to relax. Lab tests showed that these devices had a lifting strength more than 100 times that of normal skeletal muscle. Another kind of muscle being developed by the team converted chemical energy into electrical energy which caused a material made from carbon nanotube electrodes to bend."

Comments

Geek progress

[Mattygfunk1]

Sure, the synthetic muscles could be used for helping the disabled and equiping special forces, but the bigger picture is the development of the first real Terminator. Now that's geeky progress!

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Re:Geek progress

[cskrat]

I'm actually looking forward to the day that functional implants are good enough to be a desirable elective procedure.

Just imagine.. "Yeah, that's a nice tattoo. Wanna see what my synthetic muscles and reinforced skeletal structure can do?"

Re:Geek progress

[dynamo52]

Call me crazy but wouldnt it be easier just to apply electrical energy to begin with?

It is referring to the chemical energy of the fuel cells. All electrical energy derived from batteries is converted chemical energy

Get ready to kiss some shiny metal ass

[Anonymous Coward]

Scientists have developed artificial, super-strength muscles which are powered by alcohol and hydrogen.

I for one welcome our new Bender overlords.

BALCO?

[OffTheLip]

For some reason Barry Bonds comes to mind when I read the article subject. AS skewed as the sports playing field is now I shudder to think what things might be like once the 'designers' get a hold of something like this. The Tour de France in one day?

Yes, but...

[coffeechica]

I'm still trying to make up my mind to decide whether this is awesome or frightening. Both, I guess. Because there are so obviously enormous benefits. But on the other hand, when you've grown up on Marvel comics, then any mention of superhuman strength makes me wonder about the potential problems.

Fancy imagining that kind of technology in the hands of some warlord in a third world country somewhere? Or even in a normal army? I'm not sure it's something I really want to envision.

Re:Yes, but...

[The Mgt]

Bush is way more frightening than any third world warlord.

Just wait, he'll be a third world warlord soon enough.

Re:Yes, but...

[aussie_a]

when you've grown up on Marvel comics, then any mention of superhuman strength makes me wonder about the potential problems.

Yeah, but if we pay any attention to Marvel comics then everyone would be exposing themselves to radiation in order to get super powers.

Should help the disabled

[Cybert14]

Meaning all of us. I hope we start abandoning our evolved bodies soon. What we'll become will make what we are now seem quite disabled.

Re:Should help the disabled

[lurch_mojoff]

Well, it's an argument in that there are some people who, due to a lack of understanding or a passionate need to believe their religious texts are literal truth (or both), are vehemently clinging to the idea that life didn't evolve. From a scientific perspective, there is no real argument... the evidence is inescapable.

Yes, of course there is no real argument. Mine was an, obviously bad, attempt for a joke. (oops)

If you look at it, man is able to create artificial muscles that are a hundred times stronger than his own. This alone is pretty strong evidence that there was not much intelligent engineering in the "creation" of the human body. Otherwise we would have been much less vulnerable to, well, practically everything.

Powered by alcohol

[Centurix]

At least these muscles won't suffer from Brewers Droop...

Powered by alcohol?

[Sir Pallas]

Just like all of the robots in the future. I'm sure it's not coincidence.

wtf

[3-State Bit]

a lifting strength more than 100 times that of normal
skeletal muscle

Whoa. okay.

Fact 1. You know, the human body is so efficient at converting Calorie input into work output that in the world of fitness and nutrition, we practically don't even need to differentiate between Calorie intake and Calorie output! Eating exactly 500 Calories less is almost the same as performing exactly 500 Calories of work! (I think that fairly exact Calorie output testing can be performed in the laboratory, although I don't know the technique.)

Fact 2. Now let's all take a moment to read the Wipedia article on the human muscle, which includes:

Muscle can produce 3.35 kW (4 1/2 horsepower) at full rate.

Okay, so combined with 100 times that of normal skeletal muscle, these lab muscles can perform work at a rate of 335 kW or 450 horsepower per second at pretty much perfect efficiency! Holy shit.

So how far away are we from organic power plants?
Wait a minute, 459 horsepower? How far are we from starting the morning with a couple of gallons of nutritional shake for our organic car?

Re:wtf

[Eivind]

I'm hoping you're joking.

First, the human body is indeed effective, but not anywhere *close* to what you claim. The thing is, when you calculate the calorie-need for a certain activity, you typically do so by looking at a table. Say swim a mile in half an hour requires about X calories.

But those numbers are *already* calculated (or more likely measured) including the human inefficiencies.

Ever noticed you get warm and start sweating if you do heavy work ? That's waste heat for you baby.

If you pedal a bike, and generate 100W, you'll use significantly more than 25cal/s doing so (a calorie is about 4 Joule).

Second, producing "450 horsepower pro second" is a completely nonsensical statement. Horsepower (or KW) are measures of *power*, A car migth have 100 horsepower, you can measure it over a second, an hour or a year, it'll still have 100 horsepower.

It's a lot like saying you're 6 feet tall pro second, which makes no sense, unless perhaps you mean you *grow* at 6 feet pro second.

The article is dumb. 100 times as strong as skeletal muscle is a statement with no meaning unless you specify what exactly you mean;

• Is it 100 times as strong as a muscle of the same mass ?
• Is it 100 times as strong as a muschle of the same volume ?
• Do you mean it has 100 times the force ?
• Or 100 times the movement ?
• Or 100 times the power ? (i.e. force times movement)

Re:wtf

[Tx]

The article is dumb. 100 times as strong as skeletal muscle is a statement with no meaning unless you specify what exactly you mean

I agree with most of your post, but BBC aims their content at Joe Public, it's not a scientific journal. Joe public will read from that that if he replaced his muscles with these artificial muscles, he'd be able to bench-press a lot more than he can now. That's as much as he needs or wants to know, and more importantly, he'll absorb it before his short attention span is exhausted and he moves on to the celebrity gossip column.

The scientifically minded like you and I must seek other sources for more technical details, we can't expect publications aimed at the average Joe to provide the kind of detail we'd like on these stories.

Re:wtf

[Elemenope]

And it is articles like this, all of them, that assure us of the perpetuity of Joe being dumb. If there was perhaps an incentive for Joe being smarter...but, no, instant gratification is so much more marketable.

Re:wtf

[cbc1920]

I'm assuming that they mean 100 times as much linear force per unit mass. Shape memory alloy (SMA) actuators have been around since the 60's, and they are incredibly powerful. An actuator made from 1mm diameter Nitenol wire can easily lift 10lbs. Their reaction time can be measured in ms if enough heat is applied quickly. So, the claim is not so farfetched.

Of course, there are several caches to using a SMA actuator: First, its operating temperature range is less than 100C, and usually more like 40C, depending on the alloy. Second, the actuator needs to be biased with a spring to return it to its original shape. The spring will have to be pretty hefty- at least 1/3 of the maximum load. If the load is a dead-load, the spring is not needed. Finally, as another poster has mentioned, the initial response can be in the millisecond, but the recovery time can be much longer. This is because of the simple fact that dissipating heat is much more difficult than creating it. If these designers have figured out a way to pump out heat just as fast as they can dump it in, my hat is off to them.

I cannot speak to their efficiency, since it is highly dependent on the design of the device. If *only* enough heat is added to actuate the device, they could be very efficient, but this is rarely the case.

We Have the Technology...

[arakon]

We can rebuild him, make him stronger, faster....

Col Steve Austin is the "6 Million dollar Man."

duhduh taduhhh

Yeah possibly but...

[Colin Smith]

I'm quite sure you've never had sex.

In the larger interests of mankind perhaps the government should fund sex therapy sessions for all potential mad scientists.

Re:End of the blue pill

[pimpimpim]

The corpora cavernosa is not a muscle!

You don't kiss it...

[dark_requiem]

You BITE his shiny metal ass!

What about our bones?

[skam240]

one of the problems with lifting weight of this kind is whether or not our skeletons can take it. the bones in your limbs can only support so much weight. it doesnt do you any good to have the strength to lift a car over your head if it will break the bones in your arms in the process.

it strikes me that some sort of skeletal reinforcement will be needed before this can be used to its fullest extent.

Re:What about our bones?

[Fred_A]

It definitely can't ; some people can already break their bones with their overdevelopped muscles.

Artificial muscles would definitely require skeletal reinforcement. Although I don't know if anyone has ever worked on this.

I'm not sure if those synthetic muscle can actually be implanted in a living organism either.

wow that's scary

[moochfish]

Scientists have developed artificial, super-strength muscles which are powered by alcohol and hydrogen.

This could take bar fights to a whole new level.

BioEngineering

[haakondahl]

I have for some time wanted to write a story including a "car" powered by a V-8 engine which is organic above the crankshaft. I have done my little engineering studies of nutrient bath and circulatory systems, exhaust issues (I mean this thing shits all over the road) and such... I have so far envisioned genetically tuned muscles, grown in a vat (or what-have-you), but the synthetic muscles are interesting.
The problem is that I don't have a story there, just a neato idea. Not even characters. That doesn't stop many SF writers, unfortunately.

Response times seems very slow..

[Anonymous Coward]

Shape memory alloys are already available to hobbiest in the form of nitinol wire. One of the problems is the very slow cycle times. The wire I have seen is only capable of about 3 contract/relax cycles per minute under ambient cooling. The main problem seems to be that once the wire is heated up in order for it to contract, it is hard to dissipate the heat out of the wire fast enough, to get the wire back to its original length or shape. Also, compared to just a normal RC servo, the nitinol wire was very energy inefficient.

Bitch Slap

[PC-PHIX]

This is a really cool creation and the scientists responsible will slap (100 times harder than you've ever been slapped) anyone who disagrees!

Other uses

[Ztream]

Why is everyone here thinking "body augmentation"? I think this has very interesting implications for robotics and other forms of mechanical engineering; methinks the muscle is a pretty smart invention for certain types of movement and force application.

*Puts on shades, and trenchcoat*

[Ragnarrokk]

My muscles are augmented.

Bones

[StikyPad]

Now all we need are super-strong synthetic bones to prevent this sort of thing.