New twist on artificial muscles

New twist on artificial muscles.

Lightweight artificial muscle fibers that can match the large tensile stroke of natural muscles have been elusive. In particular, low stroke, limited cycle life, and inefficient energy conversion have combined with high cost and hysteretic performance to restrict practical use. In recent years, a new class of artificial muscles, based on highly twisted fibers, has emerged that can deliver more ...

New Twist on cell migration

New Twist on cell migration I nstead of packing the dishes and submitting a change of address form, a cell that is about to move replaces its surface proteins, revamps its cytoskeleton, and alters its shape. Lander et al. show that one enzyme serves as a master controller for this process. A cell’s pre-move preparations are referred to as the epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT). Embryonic c...

Artificial muscles based on conducting polymers

Natural muscles have mechanical properties that conventional actuators do not possess. These natural machines show large strain, moderate stress, high efficiency and stability, fast response time, high power/weight ratio, long lifetime, etc. In the last years a great interest has arisen to develop materials that mimic natural mechanisms. Conducting polymers have an array of potential applicatio...

Artificial Muscles Based on Electroactive Polymers

Linear artificial molecular muscles.

Two switchable, palindromically constituted bistable [3]rotaxanes have been designed and synthesized with a pair of mechanically mobile rings encircling a single dumbbell. These designs are reminiscent of a "molecular muscle" for the purposes of amplifying and harnessing molecular mechanical motions. The location of the two cyclobis(paraquat-p-phenylene) (CBPQT(4+)) rings can be controlled to b...