Self-Healing Artificial Muscles 90
Valor1016 writes "Researchers in California have developed an artificial muscle that heals itself and generates electricity. 'We've made an artificial muscle that, when you apply electricity to it, it expands, more than 200 percent, the motion and energy is a lot like human muscles,' said Qibing Pei, a scientist at UCLA and study author. The researchers used flexible carbon nanotubes as electrodes. If an area of the carbon nanotube fails, the region around it seals itself by becoming non-conductive and prevents the damage from spreading to other areas. This material also conserves about 70% of the energy you put into it. As the material contracts after an expansion the rearranging of the carbon nanotubes generates a small electric current that can be captured and used to power another expansion or stored in a battery. The research appeared in the January issue of Advanced Materials."
Contraction speed (Score:3, Interesting)
Reversibility, flexibility, bio-compatibility, and tensile strength are also important considerations. When the article is published in Advanced Materials, I'm actually going to read it to find out.
Re:NOT Healing (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Question (Score:3, Interesting)
The power stroke for a biological muscle is the contraction. While these "muscles" are interesting and could have many uses, powering limbs is not likely to be one in their current configuration.
Another expansion (Score:3, Interesting)
The other expansion should not be of the same muscle, of course; alternate between two opposing muscles and you can get a very efficient walking motion going.
(I said "walking," dammit, not "wanking!")
All of the posts complaining that "muscles should contract, not expand" -- hey, it's not that hard to use an expansion to create a useful pulling force. Wrap an elastic sleeve around it that will get shorter as it gets rounder, and mechanically it will work very much like a muscle.