Synthetic Muscle Made of Fishing Line is 100 Times Stronger Than the Real Thing

I thought shape memory wire was very expensive though - a few thousadn $/kg? Though checking nitinol.com, it's certainly cheap enough to experiment with - thanks for the tip.

If "strength" meant tensile strength, this would not be an article, let alone a paper.

The fact that fishing line can be applied this simply to create a "muscle" that forcefully contracts (that's what they mean by "strength" here) - then this is certainly both surprising and remarkable.

If it's controlled by applying heat and cold, human applications might be tricky.

Tested 1m times under load with no degradation (someone kindly sent me a copy of the paper). They talk about the process here: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/suppl/2014/02/19/343.6173....

"It forms a sinewy band that's flexible, dynamic, and can be reused millions of times"

Doesn't say what kind of "reuse" they are counting.

Essentially. IIRC there are a couple of negative feedback loops, one local and one involving the brain, and they usually limit you to about a 1/3 duty cycle for each muscle fiber. There are certainly ways that ratio can be increased, just yelling can increase the maximum force you can consciously exert by about 15%. I have no idea what the maximum is, but I'd imagine that going much further than what you're normally limited to drastically increases your odds of tearing something during exertion.

The reason chimpanzees can exert more force is anchoring, their muscles are anchored to the bone further form the joint so they have better mechanical advantage. A human has a much wider range of movement, though, and I believe we better maintain force under movement. So which a chimp might be able to lift themselves more easily, a human ends up being able to throw a rock or spear much further.

EDIT: Also, ekianjo is right that lifting cars is an exaggeration.

> lifting cars to save her child, etc.

Lifting cars is often an exaggeration in terms of wording, the reality is usually lifting up one side of the car, which is very different in terms of weight.

Muscle is not the only tissue involved with moving a weight around. Obviously you need a skeleton that can bear the load, and a heart & lungs fit enough to pump adequately oxygenated blood. But don't underestimate the large role a strength-adapted central nervous system plays.

no safety governor, just fine motor skills by addressing small specific muscle groups, hence unfortunate 'retard strength' myth (trading fine motor skills for blunt force)

I'd give up growing and self-healing if it meant not having to constantly lift to maintain condition and being able to swap out for a replacement in 5 minutes rather than spending weeks or months crippled while waiting for a self-heal.

We aren't there yet either, but when judging practicality you have to include biology's failings alongside its strengths :)

My mistake! From the PM article: "Also, by blending in conductive wire or wrapping the muscle with a light-absorbing coating, the researchers can control the muscles' movements with electricity and light instead of direct heat."

So these are heat-driven actuators (and potentially electricity or light driven). Very cool! Thanks for the clarification. (Also, this isn't at all evident from the Science abstract. I will read full paper tomorrow when I can pierce the paywall.)

Wow, that actually makes it useful, unlike what was shown on the video.

And cheap. Don't forget cheap.

Looks like it got everything.

Pumping electrons vs. pumping (and heating) a fluid? There's a reason we don't use steam engines anymore :)

One problem is that diamonds are surprisingly brittle. If you tap a diamond along a cleavage point, it will break. Diamond cutters take advantage of this; you can break a diamond with a wooden dowel if you hit it in the right place. I'd be really unhappy if my tooth just split in half because I bit down on something slightly wrong. Of course, regular teeth do that too...

You'd need to have all your teeth replaced, or the diamond ones would tear up the natural ones.

I'm okay with that, mind you. THE BRIGHTEST SMILE

Perfect cleavage in 4 directions.

For teeth, you want nephrite as the base with a thin shell of corundum on the surface.

Do you have a hair dryer? If you can actually use a cheap heat gun, Harbor Freight Tools sells them really cheap in the US.

The lack of hysterisis and creep means that you can drive them with and open loop drive system. That is a much simpler system to build.