Home > News > If I only had a brain
May 21st, 2007
Abstract:
Particularly encouraging is research into artificial muscles comprising sheets of carbon nanotubes - big cylindrical molecules of pure carbon with unusual electrical and mechanical properties. When an electrical voltage is applied gradually, ions inside the carbon move to one side, bending the nanotube sheets.
The speed and extent to which the sheets bend depend on how fast and by how much the power is increased. When the power is switched off, the sheets unbend and return to their original shape. This allows the artificial muscles to work like humans' opposing muscle groups.
Some of these materials might be used for android fingers in the future, predicts Professor Jarvis, who favours Nitinol, which bends or stretches when heated by an electric current. MIT researchers in the United States, on the other hand, are developing skin that senses, and can stop, something slipping through an android's fingers.
Source:
smh.com.au
Bookmark:
| Related News Press |
Nanotubes/Buckyballs/Fullerenes/Nanorods/Nanostrings
Tests find no free-standing nanotubes released from tire tread wear September 8th, 2023
Detection of bacteria and viruses with fluorescent nanotubes July 21st, 2023
Interviews/Book Reviews/Essays/Reports/Podcasts/Journals/White papers/Posters
Simulating magnetization in a Heisenberg quantum spin chain April 5th, 2024
Discovery points path to flash-like memory for storing qubits: Rice find could hasten development of nonvolatile quantum memory April 5th, 2024
Human Interest/Art
Drawing data in nanometer scale September 30th, 2022
Scientists prepare for the world’s smallest race: Nanocar Race II March 18th, 2022
Graphene nanotubes revolutionize touch screen use for prosthetic hands August 3rd, 2021
JEOL Announces 2020 Microscopy Image Grand Prize Winners January 7th, 2021
 |
||
 |
||
| The latest news from around the world, FREE | ||
 |
||
|
|
||
| Premium Products | ||
 |
||
|
Only the news you want to read!
Learn More |
||
 |
||
|
Full-service, expert consulting
Learn More |
||
|
|
||