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Artificial Muscles Pack a Mean Punch

Posted by samzenpus on from the power-up dept.

sciencehabit writes "Here's a twist: Scientists have designed a flexible, yarn-like artificial muscle that can also pack a punch. It can contract in 25 milliseconds—a fraction of the time it takes to blink an eye—and can generate power 85 times as great as a similarly sized human muscle. The new muscles are made of carbon nanotubes filled with paraffin wax that can twist or stretch in response to heat or electricity. When the temperature rises, the wax melts and forces the nanotubes to contract. Such artificial muscles, the researchers say, could power smart materials, sensors, robots, and even devices inside the human body."

1 of 139 comments (clear)

  1. The article by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://www.sciencemag.org/content/338/6109/928.full
    I suppose that this will answer some of the questions.
    Kind of makes me wonder why slashdot almost never links the REAL articles and instead just links some fancy news sites with second hand information.