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Nanotube Muscles Are Strong As Steel, Light As Air

Posted by Soulskill on from the we-have-the-technology dept.

Al writes "Scientists from the University of Texas at Dallas have created nanotube-based artificial muscles that are light as air and work even under extreme temperatures. The 'muscles' expand width-wise by about 200 percent when a voltage is applied, but are stronger than steel lengthwise. The nanotubes within the fiber naturally stick together. Applying a voltage makes them obtain a charge and repel one another. The researchers created them by stretching bundles of entangled carbon nanotubes into long threads. Several cool videos show the strange stuff in action. Some experts, including one from NASA, believe that the nanotube muscles' ability to withstand extreme heat and cold could make them suitable shape-shifting materials for future space missions."

8 of 103 comments (clear)

  1. Re:One step closer to "The Terminator" . . . by FreeFull · · Score: 5, Funny

    Maybe because they're not biologists.

    --
    No ascii art.
  2. Re:Close to a Space Elevator by MichaelSmith · · Score: 5, Funny

    I see the threads aren't perfect individual nanotubes, but still, good enough for a tether maybe?

    Yeah I had visions of vehicles being pushed up a space elevator by peristalsis.

    --
    http://michaelsmith.id.au
  3. Re:Make a BIG lightweight net, capture space junk by spazdor · · Score: 3, Funny

    If the net is light as air, then how exactly is it going to absorb the junk's momentum?

    More reasonable guess: space junk hits net and continues along its previous trajectory, but now with a virtually massless net trailing from it.

    --
    DRM: Terminator crops for your mind!
  4. ...and probably as healthy... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...as asbestos when inhaled...

  5. Re:Close to a Space Elevator by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Behold the hideous space-bowel.

  6. Re:One step closer to "The Terminator" . . . by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    I applaud your courage and drive, yet I would abhor a future where any sovereign nation laid claim upon the moon or the stars. Before we set afoot in the galaxy, we should become an anarcho-syndicalist commune. Take it in turns to act as a sort of executive officer for the week. Naturally, all the decisions of that officer have to be ratified at a special biweekly meeting, by a simple majority in the case of purely internal affairs, but by a two-thirds majority in the case of more pressing matters.

  7. Re:One step closer to "The Terminator" . . . by pescina · · Score: 2, Funny

    Maybe because they're not biologists.

    Maybe they have a PhD in Creationism.

  8. Re:Little bit hyped. by osvenskan · · Score: 2, Funny

    I've been playing with synthetic muscles

    Is that you, Barry Bonds?