NanoMachine

Latest

  • Nano-machines built to mimic human muscle could help power cyborgs, keep the OSI budget down

    by 
    Daniel Cooper
    Daniel Cooper
    10.24.2012

    At today's prices, building a Six Million Dollar Man would cost around $31 million. Of course, being a TV show means the Office of Scientific Intelligence doesn't have too many bionic employees, but that might not the case in the future. Nicolas Giuseppone and a team at the Université de Strasbourg and CNRS have created thousands of nano-machines to replicate the movement of human muscle fibers. Weaving them all together, the machines are able to make a coordinated contraction movement that stretches and contracts. For the moment, the supramolecular polymers can only stretch a matter of micrometers, but in the future they could be used to create artificial muscles, small robots or even materials that can move. Hopefully it'll also give us the power to leap tall buildings, so we'll be outside practicing our sound effects.