Fishing Line As Artificial "Muscle"

Posted by samzenpus on Friday February 21, 2014 @01:05AM from the reeling-in-the-big-one dept.

brindafella writes "Researchers have made what they describe as an 'almost embarrassing' discovery, that twisted nylon fishing line can form a 'powerful, large-stroke, high-stress artificial muscle' capable of lifting as much as 100 times more weight than human muscles. They twisted the fishing line, then heated it to 'set' the shape-memory. The scientists are from the Australian Research Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science at the University of Wollongong, and the University of Texas. The findings are published in Science magazine."

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Heat is the limiting factor in our muscles, too by drinkypoo · 2014-02-21 01:13 · Score: 3, Interesting

If you can prevent a person from overheating, you can keep them working 2-4 times longer. Muscles are bathed in blood, what coolant will be used for nylon? I suppose automotive stuff would be acceptable.

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"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Re:so they invented the spring by Anonymous Coward · 2014-02-21 01:37 · Score: 2, Interesting

The interesting part is that it contracts when heat is applied - like a shape memory alloy, but at a fraction of the cost.