Fishing Line As Artificial "Muscle" 111
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."
Heat is the limiting factor in our muscles, too (Score:4, 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.
Re:so they invented the spring (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.