Carbon Nanotube Muscles!

Posted: March 20th, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: bender, bicycle, cyborg, muscles, nanotech, robot | Tags: , | 2 Comments »

Nanotube muscles are here! This could mean great advances in robotics, and thus, the end of civilization as we know it- because the robots are sure to try and take over the world now that they can get buffed like the Terminator! Something tells me my watergun just became useless in the war against the machines.

With a super low density of 1.5 mg/cm3, almost as light as air, a gram of this material can cover over 30 m2! The material outperforms the human muscle by 700 percent and other carbon nanotubes materials by 10 folds : it can elongate by 220 percent at a rate of 37,000 percent per second. Alongside its astonishing vertical elasticity, it presents a superior horizontal hardness, so this “unprecedented degree of anisotropy is akin to having diamond-like behavior in one direction and rubber-like behavior in the others”.

The material support a broader temperature range than biological materials (25 to 1200 degrees Celsius) but it generates a lower power: 30J/kg against 40J/kg for real muscles.

Yeah, whatever the quote said. I just wonder if this will lead to a slew of new inventions…. self-powered bicycles? Silent vacuums? Badass Prosthetics? The possibilities are only slightly limited!

Bionic Human Coming Soon: Carbon Nanotubes Muscles [Ubergizmo]

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