UCLA researchers create self-healing, power-generating artificial muscle
By Darren Murph 
posted Mar 22nd 2008 10:58PM
posted Mar 22nd 2008 10:58PM
[Via CNET]
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I'd personally like to stick to good ol' ATP...and last I checked, I'm already self-healing.
Yea.....but if your arm gets blown halfway off (or any other muscled up area) good luck "self-healing" that.
Except these aren't self-healing like everybody's thinking they are. They're designed such that if part of the muscle fails, the surrounding sections can isolate the damaged part and work around and without it. It is decidedly not self-healing, it's merely damage-isolating.
That in itself is still pretty damn cool, but to call it self-healing is a misstatement.
This is brilliant! I won't ever have to worry about charging my ipod or cell phone and think of the static charges you could hit people with!
Ah, Deus Ex is coming to fruition.
My vision is augmented.
If this comes to fruition, Pfizer needs another cash cow besides Viagra.
eeew, i got the mental picture of milking the viagra cashcow...
What if they put this stuff in Viagra?
"Viva Viagra! It made mine muscular and veiney".
Two things:
1. Commenters, "fruition" is extremely overused already
2. Imagine this technology for lifting weights? Oh man, the possibilities!
And I thought "fruition" has something to do with fruit.
Yeah, who knew? I just found out Apple is actually an electronics brand??? Can't we just leave the poor seeded foods alone?
How would it affect your ability to lift weights?
More to the point, why would you want to? You aren't going to build any muscle.
How would it affect your ability to lift weights?
More to the point, why would you want to, you aren't going to build any muscle.
@ Gladman
Assuming this is anything like REAL muscle, this would be perfect for lifting weights. See, you may not know this, but when you lift weights, you tear your muscle. Then, after the workout, it starts rebuilding the muscle, adding more of it to make it stronger. This muscle obviously doesn't need protein, which is an immediate advantage over "the real thing" (theoretically speaking, of course). So, if this muscle acts like its biological counterpart, then all sorts of good things can happen. Plus, it generates electricity, which could be use for God-knows-what.
one step closer to the super soldiers.
Supersoldiers? Who would want them? Everybody knows that nanotechnology-embedded supersoldiers of the future move at 10 frames per second and only on the lowest detail settings.
HOLY CRAP!
Seriously, this is amazing! It will be a new and easy solution for prosthetic limbs and needs almost no upkeep!
This is stuff of science fiction! If they can make this practical, we will be living in a better world.
Welcome to Engadget.
What is that supposed to mean? I've been here for a while, it's just not every day that something like this happens.
It makes me think of the type of prosthetics the guy from I Robot had.
it means you're saying what everyone thinks about almost every post.
Yes, but a new laptop, desktop, phone, or camera will not change the world as much as this discovery.
But I am glad other people share my excitement and were not simply meaning to be sarcastic against me.
Still needs an interface to your brain though eh.
That's great and everything, but does it play doom?
if it was my arm/robot thingy
then no
if it was your arm/robot thingy
then we all know what it would be doing
(hint its not playing doom)
Yes...
Without muscles, you can't play doom.
With muscles you can push the mouse or press buttons/keys to play doom.
When will self healing brains be developed for these people thinking that 'Doom' comments are still funny? It's like their brains were blended or something..
no, but it will power the blenders used to blend the faces of those who ask, will it play doom
Oh my god! What an iPhone ripoff!
Oh come on, is that really necessary? Especially when there's a Meizu M8 post right underneath this one, a post where your comment would have had at least a little bit of relevance.
I'm not sure if I should laugh at you, or feel sorry for you.
at the moment it's kinda both. haha, aww he did it wrong...
That's sort of the point...Engadget readers always disappoint me when it comes to sarcasm :[
This is seriously the first engadget comment that made me really laugh out loud.
Oh and don't worry about these biatches that can't take a joke.
If you read the source (CNET) then their headline is infact "...can charge an iPhone" :D
@ eggo
+10 for sarcasm that has deeper meaning on so many levels
Is it April 1st already?
My, how time flies...
Is there a DIY kit?
So this is how they got a 1 seed....
If you blend it, does it heal itself then?
a quick read of the source article determined that this muscle expands on electrical charge. No where could I determine the force to mass ratio of the muscle but I doubt it is very high. It is not really self-healing, either, but acts to limit the spread of damage. Once the damage is done, only replacement of the muscle will repair the harm.
I think I will stick to ATP, although, it might be nice to introduce a photosynthesis cycle as long as I don't have to turn green in the process!
At heart, this is just another sneaky way to beat those pesky steroid tests!
Bottom line--this is the sneakiest way yet to beat those pesky steroid tests!
I would think the Olympic committee would ban these in competitions because they would be 'performance enhancing'.
Sure why not, the Olympics already denies those with amputated legs. The razor or whatever style legs are a "performance enhancing" option to the lack of their limbs.
I read about some guy who had the razors and he got disqualified from his long distance or sprint run... I forget which but it was pretty sad since he had trained for the event, without. legs.
Olympics will be totally worthless once everyone gets prosthetic limbs when the super-human-muscle-mechanics comes out. Just wait, transhuman is coming.
reminds me to crysis nanosuit
So when can we have these wirelessly charge our cellphones/ipods/laptops/cars/houses/etc.
Myomer. Gotta love it.
lol you beat me to battletech reference
Oh snap!!
That is what ran through my brain... but it isnt gummy/sticky enough when not in use ^_^
MAXIMUM STRENGTH.
MAXIMUM SPEED
gotta love Crysis
Yeah exactly, thats what came up in my mind when I came across this post.
Wow amazing! This should be in BREAKING NEWS!
Too far from being practically real!
My hopes are one day, artificial muscle will not be powered by electricity but by human metabolism and I am almost certain that day will come with in my lifetime.
Did anybody else instantly think "Ghost in the Shell" ?????
No just me.......
We'll only get to Ghost in the Shell when we're able to put souls and or minds inside of robots, and even then people will probably think Cyberpunk before Ghost in the Shell.
AKBlade13
dude yea i totally thought the ghost in the shell movie actually and how they all bearly have human parts
That's a good start.
Now all they need is "Maximum Speed", "Maximum Armor" and "Cloak".
Finally!
I am able to reenact Naruto fight scenes without a sandbox!
Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology.
Robocop? or Inspector Gadget?
$6 Million Dollar man, dude...
It's not actually "healing." It can't repair damage to itself. "Fault tolerant" would be more accurate, meaning it doesn't immediately fail upon sustaining damage. It's functionality does gradually decline from damage.
OK so it is self healing thats fine. but if it works around the damaged tissue, it must create a seal around it so does this mean the damaged tissue will rot or get infected underneath?
carbon nanotubes rot?
With all this great technology, the biggest problem is there's no direct control from the brain to this part of the body and back. After reading a little bit on the subject, thinking it might be my research interest after I graduated, I realized a computer can get electricity from the brain but it can't be understood and putting electricity back in to the brain might kill it.
Just "Plug-and-Play!"
I wonder if they can add muscle to humans with diseases that deteriorate muscle?
hasn't anybody seen Terminator? This stuff is scary
Needs a USB port or two.
Sweet so let's say, this technology got got pushed to a new generation of artificial limbs, and my Ipod and my Psp's battery runs low I can just plug it up to my arm or leg.
Hmmm, I'd love to see if something like this could be adapted as a treatment for conditions like muscular dystrophy.