24 February 2014

How to make artificial muscles from fishing line

Researchers from the University of Texas at Dallas (USA) have presented synthetic muscles that are 100 times more powerful than real ones muscle fibers the same length and mass.

At the same time, the manufacturing technology itself turned out to be surprisingly simple. No fancy synthetic polymers were needed for artificial muscles: Ray Baughman and his colleagues simply took a polymer thread from those used to manufacture fishing line or synthetic thread, and twisted it into a spiral. This spiral could twist and stretch with a change in temperature. It is curious that the technical process could be changed so that the effect was the opposite, that is, so that the thread twisted when cooling, and stretched when heated. By varying the number of threads in the bundle, it is possible to achieve other mechanical characteristics of the artificial "muscle fiber".

Synthetic fibers made from six strands of different thicknesses:
the upper one is made of threads 2.45 mm thick, the lower one is made of threads 150 microns thick.
(Photo by the authors of the work.)

And these characteristics are truly impressive. First, compared to ordinary muscles, which can only contract by 20% of their length, artificial muscles are able to decrease in half. Such muscles, of course, also do not know rapid fatigue. If you combine together a hundred elementary fibers, then such a muscle can lift more than 700 kg. In relation to weight, the fibers can develop a power of 7.1 hp. per kg, which corresponds, according to the researchers, to the power of a jet engine.

The engine for them, as already mentioned, is a temperature drop, which can be provided in any way - even with the help of a chemical reaction, even with the help of electricity (and at least warm these fibers with your breath). As for the fibers themselves, scientists are especially emphasizing the exceptional simplicity of their manufacture: they say, any student will do this during an ordinary laboratory, the main thing is to observe the physical conditions under which you will deform the thread. The genius of the authors of the idea is that they managed to guess the enormous physical potential in this trivial polymer construction.

Actually, the simplicity of these muscles, probably, makes it difficult to immediately appreciate the whole revolutionary nature of the invention. Although the researchers, of course, demonstrated its possible use: being adapted to the window, they closed and opened it depending on the ambient temperature. In addition, it was possible to create woven fabric from the fibers, the porosity of which again changed depending on the temperature, and from here it is easy to imagine “smart” clothes that will ventilate you in the heat and save heat in the cold.

But, of course, the lion's share of fantasies around and around artificial muscles is given to robotics. It is clear that such fibers can become a direct analogue of human muscles in robots, with the help of which they can even change facial expressions. Synthetic muscles are useful both when lifting weights and performing delicate surgical procedures (if we imagine the medical devices of the future).

In the past, attempts have been made to make such fibers from carbon nanotubes. According to Ray Boffman, who also went through this stage, experiments with nanotubes were successful, but, firstly, such "nanomuscles" are very difficult to manufacture and extremely expensive, and secondly, they shrank by only 10% of their length. , that is, they were inferior even to ordinary living muscles, not to mention the newly discovered polymer fibers.

So far, we have only one question that concerns efficiency and economy: how much heat (and, therefore, electrical or chemical energy) needs to be spent on their mechanical work? The authors admit that, like everyone else artificial muscles, their fibers in this sense are not particularly efficient, but there are certain hopes that in this case it will be possible to optimize energy costs rather quickly.

Prepared from the University of Texas at Dallas: Researchers Create Powerful Muscles From Fishing Line, Thread.

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06 February 2014

Bionic hand with sense of touch

Nine years ago, Dane Dennis Sorensen had to amputate his left arm. Of course, he did not think for a minute when he was offered to test a bionic prosthesis, which allows not only to perform movements, but also to touch objects.

read 22 January 2014

Cyborg sperm

A group of researchers from the University of Illinois has developed a new type of tiny biohybrid machine that can move like sperm.

read 22 January 2014

Artificial muscles will help to rehabilitate a paralyzed leg

From a paralyzed foot, you can achieve almost natural mobility if you use an orthopedic device made of flexible elastic material that simulates the structure of the muscles and ligaments of the leg.

read 22 January 2014

The polymer cell mimics a living

Dutch researchers have produced an artificial eukaryotic cell, which contains artificial organelles and undergoes biochemical reactions similar to the reactions occurring in the cells of living organisms.

read 26 December 2013

Open source nematode

The authors of the OpenWorm project, which aims to create an exact computer copy of the C. elegans roundworm, have reported significant success in modeling this nematode. The source code of the program is published in the public domain.

A technology has been developed for creating inexpensive artificial muscles based on a rigid frame enclosed in a soft chamber. Muscles contract by reducing the pressure in them, and they can be created using different materials. The article was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Engineers who develop robots often use structures in their inventions that resemble the functions of living beings. Despite this, robots still most often use electric motors or internal combustion engines to move, coupled with complex mechanical transmissions. Some researchers take a different approach and are developing sources of movement that are closer in their structure to muscles. There are already many prototypes of artificial muscles that can contract like real muscles, but almost all of them require expensive materials and technological processes, while the effectiveness of many of them is still low.

Researchers led by Robert Wood of Harvard University have developed a simple, inexpensive technology to create effective artificial muscles that can be created from a wide variety of different materials. The schematic diagram of the creation of such actuators is quite simple. As a basis, a frame of a given shape is used, which can be folded and unfolded. Then, around this frame, two pieces of film made of polymer or other airtight and soft material are glued or fused. Thus, a soft chamber with a rigid frame inside is formed, which is connected to the source of the pressure difference.

How artificial muscles work

Shuguang Li et al. / PNAS, 2017

The actuator is controlled by decreasing or increasing the pressure of the liquid or gas inside the chamber. As a result, the actuator begins to change its shape: to fold or vice versa to increase in size, and in the case of a frame of complex shape, to perform other movements - for example, to bend in a certain direction.

An example of a gripper

Shuguang Li et al. / PNAS, 2017

Using this technology, the researchers created several prototype actuators and measured their performance. One of these prototypes, a ten centimeter linear actuator weighing less than three grams, was able to lift a load weighing more than three kilograms. Researchers estimate that the peak power of such actuators is about two kilowatts per kilogram of mass, making them more powerful than the actual skeletal muscles of mammals.

Scientists have previously unveiled many prototypes of artificial muscles that work on different principles. Some also work due to pressure, for example, the main part of which is occupied by polymer foam covered with silicone, as well as soft vacuum from many hollow cells. Others use heating for their work: in this way they work on the basis of nylon line and the recently introduced, filled with bubbles with ethanol, which turns into gas and expands when heated. In addition, it was recently introduced from many layers of two-dimensional material, which expands when foreign ions are introduced into it. By the way, artificial muscles are not always made entirely of artificial materials. Taiwanese scientists are muscles made from a thin film of onion skins, which contracts under the influence of electricity.

Grigory Kopiev

Reading the article will take: 6 minutes

Pulchritudo mundum servabit

(from Latin - beauty will save the world)

Regardless of the current standard of beauty of the human body, at all times it was in demand. Beautiful bodyforms have more chances to successfully marry / marry, grow in their careers, be popular and even become the people's choice ... cinema and theater, again. Naturally, people deprived of standard beauty strive to bring their "unpretentious little body" closer to the standard at least a little, tormenting themselves with diets, physical exertion, tightening into corsets and, in extreme cases, communicating on Skype strictly in a conversation without video, or, in the case of a lousy diction, only by correspondence. But for the modern silicone mold industry, nothing is impossible!

For half a century, five generations of implants "for body beauty correction" have been developed. It should be noted that there is no absolutely safe version among them:

• first generation(1960-1970) characterized by a strong and thick silicone shell with a smooth surface, its contours could be discerned through the skin, and when pressed, a crunch was heard, similar to the sound of a crumpled paper sheet. Despite the thickness of the casing, its filler partially “sweated” outward, causing partial wrinkling of the tissues;
• second generation(1970-1980) silicone implants had a thinner shell and a smoother surface. The filler, as in the first generation, was a silicone gel. They did not publish a crunch, but they had a higher degree of "sweating" and, which is much worse, often broke. Some of the models of implants were covered with a spongy material made of micro-polyurethane, which reduced the likelihood of inflammation and prevented the displacement of the implant;
• in shells third and fourth generations(created circa 1985) the disadvantages of previous models were taken into account - texture on the surface, double walls and a double chamber, with silicone gel in the outer and saline in the inner. Injection of saline solution in the required volume allowed adjusting the shape of the implant after placement "in place". Two layers of outer walls prevent "sweating", keeping it to a minimum. Ruptured implants of these generations were rare, but occurred;
• fifth generation(created around 1995). Durable, filled with a highly intermolecular bond (cohesion) silicone gel that does not sweat. When changing the position of the body, the geometry of the implants does not change under the influence of gravity - the filler retains the memory of the original shape. However, there is no 100% certainty in their safety.

Silicone Implant Fillers:

• liquid silicone, the consistency is similar to vegetable oil;
• jelly-like standard cohesion silicone gel... It is difficult to identify the implant by touch; in terms of density, it corresponds to living tissue. The degree of "sweating" is low, but such a filler retains its shape rather poorly;
• high cohesion gel, similar in consistency to marmalade. It has an extremely low degree of deformation, does not "sweat", but has a high shape memory, i.e. the area of ​​the body in the area of ​​the implant may have an unnatural appearance;
• medium cohesion gel(soft touch), similar to jellied meat. The shape memory is average, the shell does not "sweat";
• saline(0.9% sodium chloride solution in water). The reliability of the implants is weak, since after nine months from the moment of placement in the body, the salt crystallizes, i.e. takes on a partially solid form. The resulting salt crystals are capable of piercing the shell of the implant.

Depending on the area of ​​placement, implants will often have an oval shape, less often a conical shape. In all cases described below, implants of at least the third generation are used.

Silicone Breasts... Long before the first surgically modified transsexuals appeared, women were desperate to improve their bust shape. In the absence of other options, various tricks were used, such as a printed bodice and voluminous lace. But they worked only until the moment of exposure of the breast, and after ... after the embarrassment was inevitable. An attempt to reconstruct the mammary glands from the inside was first undertaken by the Czech surgeon Vincent Cerny in 1895, using the patient's adipose tissue.

The development of the film industry at the beginning of the 20th century gave a new impetus to breast implantation. Surgeons were looking for the optimal material for enlarging a woman's bust, filling it with glass balls, fatty tissue, wool, plastic tape rolled into a ball, styrofoam, and even, probably by analogy with glass, ivory balls. Among the listed methods of implantation, the most harmless was the patient's adipose tissue, but the new bust did not retain its shape for long - the body absorbed fat and the breasts sagged more than before.

But the forms of the film stars haunted the dyed blondes from the USA and Europe. Their logic was simple - if you can change the color of your hair, then why can't you reconstruct your breasts? By the middle of the last century, the volume of the bust increased by about 50,000 women, mainly American and Japanese women (sex workers from the Land of the Rising Sun). They used materials from the chemical industry that were new at that time - polyvinyl sponges (vinyl, as you know, records were made from) and liquid silicone (injected). The consequences were dire ... the breasts were so hard that they had to save the owners by completely removing them.

Silicone implants as we know it today appeared in 1961. They were created by the American corporation Dow Corning - the shell was made of rubber, filled with silicone gel. Three years later, the French Arion launches its version of silicone prostheses filled with seawater. In the 80s, American implants were considered a possible cause of breast cancer and by the early 90s they were banned from mainstream use. After a flurry of lawsuits from owners of silicone breasts, Dow Corning paid more than $ 3 billion in compensation and went broke.

Silicone buttocks... This type of plastic surgery is called gluteoplasty. The purpose of using implants of this group, as in the case of silicone breasts, is associated with increasing the aesthetic characteristics of the body - to make a flat volumetric.

In terms of popularity among the strong and weak sexes, the buttocks are in second place, which means that their attractive parameters are in demand among potential owners of gluteal implants. The fashion for a bulging ass among women was introduced by Jennifer Lopez - a dancer, after a film actress and singer. The fifth point of Jay Lo invariably leads among other "star buttocks", which is facilitated by its constant demonstration.

I had to watch on the network unpleasant videos with silicone implants in the buttocks, which supposedly could be freely rotated under the skin. In fact, their correct integration takes place under gluteal muscles, there is no way to recognize it from the outside, let alone displace the implants.

If breasts with silicone filler are mainly popular with women, then silicone buttocks are equally attractive for both sexes - after all, age-related flat-headedness is characteristic of both men and women.

Silicone Muscles... Let's remember the movie heroes of the late 80s - brutal, desperately pumped up guys of the class "hasta la vista, babe", with a face not disfigured by thought. Schwarzenegger, Stallone, Lungren, Rock Johnson, Hulk Hogan and many others - they were all primarily united by voluminous, abundant abundant muscles throughout the body. Modern action heroes are not the same. Intelligence crept into their facial features, physical data is more likely at the medium level - they began to play their roles, and not just appear in the frame with a pile of muscles with a couple of duty phrases against the background of an anti-shock white-toothed smile.

Of course, the muscles of the kinidols were not of natural origin, since no training would allow such convex cubes and balls to be formed. Men and women, determined to stand out from the gray mass of earthlings with impressive muscles, were forced to inject, eat and drink chemicals that artificially increase the growth of muscle fibers and cause blood flow to the muscles. The costs of steroids were quite impressive - from $ 25,000-30,000 annually. At the same time, voluminous muscles and real physical strength are not synonymous - a bodybuilder is able to lift significant weight on the spot, but is not able to move a weight that is half the weight lifted, because no muscle endurance.

Modern action movie actors of various genres have acquired an amazing ability to change the volume of their bodies in a matter of months, which the press calls some of their physical talent and the skill of trainers. In fact, and with a high degree of probability this can be argued, their bodies are no more trained than ordinary people who load their muscles only periodically. It is much easier to get a relief body with the help of silicone molds - biceps implants, cubes on the stomach, deltoids, calf muscles and so on. And at the same time, no defects of tissues and systems of the body will occur, the spine will not be threatened by a hernia, and the muscles will not be threatened by stretch marks and lactic acid. True, the implant can rupture ...

I present a video about two of the most famous in the Internet world "implant pumping" who consider themselves irresistibly beautiful (I do not share their opinion) - the British-Brazilian Rodrigo Alves and the American Justin Jetlik:

There are vivid technological projects "on hearing", such as car autopilots or thermonuclear energy, which are likely to seriously change our lives. But there are also ideas that are quite inconspicuous at first glance, the consequences of the introduction of which can lead to almost more radical changes in Everyday life... The best example is “muscle tissue”, which appeared in science fiction literature only when laboratories were already in full swing on the creation of metal and polymer artificial muscles, including for human prostheses.

V modern technology mainly used two effective ways performing mechanical work: thermodynamic and electromagnetic. The first is based on the use of compressed gas energy, as in internal combustion engines, steam turbines and firearms. In the second, magnetic fields created by electric currents are involved - this is how electric motors and electromagnets work. However, in living nature, a completely different approach is used to obtain mechanical motion - a controlled change in the shape of objects. This is how the muscles of humans and other living beings work. When a nerve impulse arrives, chemical reactions are triggered in them, which lead to contraction or, conversely, to stretching of muscle fibers.

The advantages of this "natural" drive are due to the fact that the material changes as a whole. This means that there are no parts moving relative to each other, and therefore, rubbing and wearing parts. In addition, the integrity of the organism is preserved (or, more correctly, its geometric connectivity). Movement occurs at the molecular, or, as it is fashionable now to say, the nanoscale due to the slight approach or distance from each other of the atoms of the substance. This practically eliminates the inertia of the muscles, which is so characteristic of all robots with electric motors. But, of course, there are disadvantages to the muscular drive. If we talk about living muscles, this is constant flow chemical components that must be supplied to every cell of muscle tissue. Such muscles can only serve as part of a complex living organism. Another disadvantage is associated with the gradual aging of the material. In a living organism, cells are periodically renewed, but in a monolithic technical device, this is extremely difficult to provide. In the search for artificial muscles, scientists are striving to maintain the advantages inherent in shape-shifting propellers while at the same time avoiding their disadvantages.

Shape memory

Early research into artificial muscle was directly related to the shape memory effect inherent in some alloys. It was discovered in 1932 by the Swedish physicist Arne Olander using the example of an alloy of gold with cadmium, but has not attracted much attention for almost 30 years. In 1961, shape memory was completely accidentally discovered in a nickel-titanium alloy, the product from which can be arbitrarily deformed, but when heated, it restores its original shape. Less than two years later, a commercial product appeared in the USA - an alloy, nitinol, named for its composition and place of development (NITINOL - NiTi Naval Ordnance Laboratories).

Shape memory is provided due to the fact that the crystal lattice of nitinol can be in two stable states (phases) - martensitic and austenitic. Above a certain critical temperature, the entire alloy is in the austenitic phase with a cubic crystal lattice. Upon cooling, the alloy passes into the martensitic phase, in which, due to the changed geometric proportions of the cells of the crystal lattice, it becomes plastic. If a small mechanical force is applied, a nitinol product in a martensitic state can be given almost any configuration - it will be maintained until the object is heated to a critical temperature. At this moment, the martensite phase becomes energetically unfavorable, and the metal passes into the austenite phase, restoring its previous shape.

This is how it looks in the simplest case. In practice, of course, there are a number of restrictions on deformation. The main thing is that they should not exceed 7-8%, otherwise the form can no longer be fully restored. Subsequent developments made it possible to create different options nitinol alloys. For example, there are those who remember two forms at once - one corresponds to high temperatures, the other to low. And at intermediate temperatures, the material can be arbitrarily deformed, but it will remember one of its two forms when heated or cooled.

To date, more than a dozen shape memory alloys are known based on various elements. However, the family of nitinol alloys remains the most widespread. The shape memory effect in NiTi-based alloys is clearly expressed, and the temperature range can be adjusted with good accuracy from several degrees to tens by introducing various impurities into the alloy. In addition, nitinol is inexpensive, easy to process, resistant to corrosion, and has good physical and mechanical characteristics: for example, its ultimate strength is only 2–4 times lower than that of steel.

Perhaps the main disadvantage of such alloys for a long time was a small supply of cyclicity. The number of controlled deformations did not exceed a couple of thousand iterations, after which the alloy lost its properties.

In the blink of an eye

NanoMuscle was able to solve this problem. In winter 2003, at the International Toy Fair in New York, she presented an unusual doll - Baby Bright Eyes. The toy very realistically copied the facial expressions of the eyes of a small child, which is almost impossible to achieve with the microelectric motors traditionally used in the toy industry - they are too inertial. At the same time, the cost of the doll (during serial production) was estimated at only $ 50, which looked absolutely fantastic.

In prototyping the doll, engineers at NanoMuscle were able to overcome cyclic limitations by using titanium and nickel nanoparticles, and by developing software that controls the alloy in a more gentle manner, so the life cycle of these nanomuscles exceeds five million iterations. The nanoparticles were combined into thin fibers about 50 microns in diameter, and a wire several centimeters long was woven from them, which could change the length by 12-13% (another record).

Respect and power of the device called NanoMuscle Actuator. With the same mass, nanomuscles develop a power a thousand times more than human muscles, and 4,000 times more than an electric motor, and at the same time, its response speed is only 0.1 seconds. But what is especially important, thanks to the composite design, the NanoMuscle Actuator does not jump from one state to another, but can move smoothly at a given speed.

The nanomuscle used to propel the doll's eyes was controlled by an 8-bit microprocessor and had a 1.8 volt supply voltage. Its estimated price in industrial production does not exceed 50 cents. Later, a whole family of toys of this kind with a large number of moving elements was introduced. And soon the venture capital company NanoMuscle was taken over by the rapidly growing Chinese corporation Johnson Electric, which specializes in the production of electric drives for a variety of equipment - from DVD players to car mirrors.

Around the same time, at the University of Texas, nanotechnologist Ray Baughman figured out how to make metal muscles work without electricity at all - directly from chemical fuels, which could be useful in systems with high demands on autonomy. He covered the rope made of shape memory alloy with a platinum catalyst and began to blow it with a mixture of methanol, hydrogen and oxygen vapors. In a gaseous environment, due to the low concentration, the reaction practically does not take place, but quite a lot of heat was released on the surface covered with the catalyst. An increase in temperature forced the cable to change its length, after which the supply of methanol stopped, and after a while the cable cooled down and returned to its original length. It may seem like a bad idea, but it is not at all necessary that the involved metal muscles directly move the limbs or wheels of the robot. If there are a lot of such muscles and they work alternately, then the drive turns out to be quite stable, and in combination it will still serve as a fuel cell that generates energy for on-board electronics.

Electroactive polymers

But shape memory metals are not the only direction in the creation of artificial muscles. Dr. Yoseph Bar-Cohen of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is developing an alternative technology - electroactive polymer (EAP) - and has already received 18 patents and two NASA medals in this field. By early 2001, his lab boasted two types of artificial muscles.

One of them is polymer tapes made of carbon, oxygen and fluorine. When serving electric current the distribution of charges on the surface of such a tape changes, and it bends. Dr. Bar-Cohen's laboratory has already demonstrated to reporters a simple manipulator of four ribbons, which allows you to grab a small object and pick it up from the ground (in the future, it is assumed - from the surface of another planet). Obviously, the complexity and variety of possible movements of such a grip depends only on the configuration of the polymer tapes. On the video, the movement of such polymer muscles looks completely unusual: the ribbons clamped in a vice suddenly begin to bend up and down - at first slowly, like flower petals, but then faster and more often, and now they are no longer even visible - like the wings of a mosquito in flight.

Devices of the second type differ in geometry: EAP plates are rolled into tubes like tobacco leaves in a cigar. When voltage is applied, the tubes contract and squeeze the elastic core, forcing it to stretch. NASA hopes that such devices can be used in a new generation of rovers. For example, in one of the projects, instead of sending one or two heavy wheeled vehicles, it is proposed to scatter hundreds of balls around the landing point with sensors, wireless adapters and drives based on artificial muscles of the second type, which will allow the balls to jump from place to place. This will make it possible to quickly and inexpensively survey the whole territory at once. By the way, modern EAP models already provide an actuation time of less than 0.1 seconds, a two-fold elongation of the pusher and a force 1,000 times greater than its Earth's weight - quite enough for jumping over distant planets.

Duel with a robot

Two years ago, Bar-Cohen and several heads of competing laboratories decided on a small show to popularize their developments - an arm wrestling tournament with an artificial arm. In the press release, the event was preceded by such a decisive phrase: "If the automated hand wins, then it will open the doors to many new technologies in medicine, military affairs and even the entertainment industry."

The organizers of the tournament left the choice of the opponent, or rather the rival, to the television crew, and they preferred the high school student Panna Felsen, who founded a robotics club at her school in San Diego. She had to fight three artificial hands according to the rules close to the classic ones. Their observance was monitored by two professional armwrestlers. The show was a success, but it cooled some hotheads a little: not a single hand could withstand an undeniably beautiful, but fragile girl.

Her first rival was a manipulator from the American company Environmental Robots Incorporated with two artificial muscles. The duel with the robot lasted 24 seconds. The second and third rivals lasted only 4 and 3 seconds, respectively. The tournament revealed, in addition to purely power problems, which can always be solved by increasing the number of polymer plates, and other serious shortcomings of the devices. For example, the third arm, created at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute, used chemical processes to activate the polymer, not electrical impulses. According to its developers, such a solution is much more natural for the future implementation of artificial muscles. However, during the show, the slowness of the chemical activation mechanism was fully manifested: the artificial muscle began to work only a few seconds after the start of the fight, so the manipulator was defeated even before it entered the operating mode.

Champion's childhood

One of the major competitors of the Bar-Cohen group is Artificial Muscle, which is extremely serious about its mission: "To bring to the market solid state drives that do to motors and pumps what semiconductors did to vacuum tubes." Artificial Muscle uses the same electroactive polymers as "solid-state" drives, but in order to differentiate from competitors, they use a different abbreviation - EPAM (Electroactive Polymer Artificial Muscle). According to the developers, artificial muscles in the future will surpass all other mechanical drives - electromagnetic, pneumatic, hydraulic and piezoelectric - in all respects: cost, noise, speed, weight and power density.

But that is in the future, but for now, a single-layer polymer artificial muscle EPAM is capable of developing an effort of only 0.5 Newtons (the weight of a 50-gram weight). True, by adding dozens of such layers, you can get a rather significant effect. Such devices are already being offered, for example, to camera manufacturers as drives for the autofocus mechanism.

Artificial muscles are developing rapidly, but many of the results are already hidden behind a veil of commercial secrets, so it is difficult to talk about what figures are record highs today. But, for example, the ability to withstand up to 17 thousand compression-stretching cycles per second, declared by Artificial Muscle, has a high chance of being the speed record in the world of artificial muscles. As well as the ability of the polymer material to change its length by 3.8 times, achieved in the company's laboratory. Of course, such a “mockery” of a substance cannot last long, and if a polymer muscle is required to reliably work millions of times, it should not change its length by more than 15%. At least, at the current level of development of this industry.

Electromuscular Armor

But the noble scientific interests of specialists like Dr. Joseph Bar-Cohen are no match for the funding and technical capabilities of laboratories that do not hesitate to work for the military, like BAE Systems. This company carries out military orders for almost all technically developed countries of the world, and therefore information about its developments appears quite often, despite the secrecy regime.

This time, the leak occurred through a small British company H. P. White Laboratory, which is mainly engaged in testing the strength of protective systems: armor, bullet-proof glass, body armor. According to British law, information about the activities of military and medical companies cannot be completely hidden behind the secrecy of patents, therefore, according to their reports, it is possible to indirectly trace the development of new developments in the military sphere. This time, the researchers proposed using the EAP principle to create "multiple stress armor", which is a multilayer structure of a large number of polymer tapes interspersed with microparticles of durable ceramics and magnetized particles oriented in a certain way. A bullet that hits the armor causes initial deformation and leads to a sharp displacement of the magnetized particles. Due to induction, a short electrical impulse arises, forcing the polymer tapes to shrink, dramatically increasing the strength of the armor, since the particles of interspersed armored ceramics have a certain silhouette, which allows them to adhere to a continuous coating when compressed.

The most important advantage of this system is that the maximum "density" of the armor is formed exactly at the point of impact of the bullet, gradually decreasing on the sides. As a result, the kinetic energy of the bullet is evenly distributed over almost the entire area of ​​the body armor. Although the armor turned out to be more voluminous, it was much lighter than modern counterparts. If before the turn in a bulletproof vest from an automatic rifle did not kill a person, but it was guaranteed to disable him for at least tens of minutes, then, according to preliminary calculations, the new protective system will not even leave bruises on the soldier's body.

By now, artificial muscles are used mainly in specific areas that traditionally have strong government support. Civilian and even medical research lags far behind the military. Developers of artificial muscles closely guard the secrets of their production. For example, Artificial Muscle does not even sell its polymer tapes to anyone - only ready-made drives based on them. At some point, the situation turned out to be so egregious that Bar-Cohen's group simply took and published on their website some simple recipes for making electroactive polymers so that more independent researchers could join the work. The first publicly available devices using the basic capabilities of artificial muscles will appear in the next decade, and they have every chance of becoming the revolutionary innovation that will pave the way for the creation of inexpensive multifunctional self-propelled household robots. And not only robots. According to Dr. Bar-Cohen, the development of this technology is very reminiscent of the inventive boom of the late 19th - early 20th centuries: materials are readily available, experiments and research can be delivered by any student with a bright head, and monetary costs are minimal.

So all that remains is to be patient and after a dozen years thoroughly shake up the contents of the science fiction bookshelf in order to get rid of hopelessly outdated books in technical terms.

A huge number of men, famous athletes, actors and ordinary workers, dream of a beautiful fit body like a magazine cover. Many representatives of the stronger sex are convinced that just such an appearance will make them self-confident, because such a body is liked by beautiful women.
It is difficult to argue with this statement, most women like athletes. But how can you achieve desired result if you don't want to spend days and nights in the gym. It would seem that the ideal solution is artificial muscles, but in reality everything is not so simple, any procedure has its own indications and side effects... Let's consider several types of artificial muscle augmentation.

Synthol

Increased muscle volume

Synthol has been used for many years by professional athletes before competition to give their muscles extra volume. This is a special oil-based injection solution that allows you to locally enlarge the muscle where it is needed. This procedure helps to make the body chiseled and beautiful.
Volume appears as a result of muscle swelling due to the ingress of oils into them, it is also assumed that a local inflammatory process occurs in the muscle tissue, provoking edema. Such artificial muscles do not actually become strong and strong, they only swell, become more voluminous in appearance.
Definitely, it is very difficult to call such interference in the body's work useful. Not only is synthol excreted from the body for years, it has a large number of side effects, there are even cases of death after using this drug.
The fact is that when injected, fat can easily enter the blood vessels, which in turn provokes a disease called fat embolism. This condition threatens with dire consequences, such as stroke and heart attack. For this reason, currently professional athletes refuse synthol as a cosmetic procedure.

Implants

The easiest way to get beautiful-looking artificial muscles without ever visiting gym- do plastic surgery... The doctor will install silicone implants in the required place, which will look like real muscles, but unlike muscles, the implants will not dissolve in the absence of training.
Silicone is inserted in two ways: either under the skin or under the muscle tissue. In the first case, the procedure is quite safe and cheap, the operation is quick and usually without consequences, but such "muscles" will not look natural, since unusual contours will be visible, in addition, the implants are very soft to the touch, which can be easily felt through the skin ...
In the second case, the effect of the operation is more natural, since the implant is placed under the muscle tissue, having previously cut it, and subsequently stitched it. Such an intervention is quite difficult, long-term rehabilitation after surgery is required, the restoration of muscle tissue is quite difficult and takes a long time.
Unlike the use of medications, the effect of implants will remain forever, but any surgical intervention can have complications:

• Implants do not always take root, sometimes you have to do the operation again, removing them;
• The body can respond with a violent allergic reaction to a foreign body;
• After the operation, bleeding, infection, inflammation in the tissues, suppuration may occur;
• If the surgeon is not experienced enough, visible scars may remain;
• Severe tissue edema may occur, which does not go away for a long time.

If a person decides to have an operation, it is imperative to make sure that the doctor is experienced enough, be sure to undergo an examination, and not go under the knife of a plastic surgeon if there are contraindications. You can become beautiful without risking your later life.

Push up

Another way to look pumped up and strong is to wear pads. As you know, for many years women have been using push-up bras to make their breasts appear lush, such underwear suits most women, and they are not going to go under the knife.
Why not use this safe and effective method for men too. If you put on a patch under your clothes, the body will seem more voluminous and masculine, which is enough for many men to feel confident at work and when meeting friends.
This method is completely safe, in contrast to drugs and surgery. The linings do not harm the body in any way, do not cause physical addiction, but they also have a number of significant disadvantages:

• First of all, it is very hot in push-up rubbers, especially in summer. This method is suitable for the cold season.
• The overlays are invisible under the clothes, but if you take off your shirt, the secret will immediately be revealed.
• Artificial muscles don't feel like real muscles to the touch.
• The pads do not contract like real muscles, so they immediately give out when touched.
• They are not cheap, for this money it is better to purchase a gym membership and take care of your health and figure for real.

Steroids

Another well-known method to build muscle quickly and without training is the use of anabolic steroids. It would seem that this method is an excellent solution for those who want beautiful body but is too lazy to train. Moreover, the muscles grow really, and do not swell like synthol, there are no foreign bodies inside, as when installing implants.
Anabolic steroids increase the amount of testosterone in the body. Thus, the brain perceives itself as more masculine and begins to actively build up muscle mass making a person stronger and larger. The downside of steroids is that they are addictive; over time, the body will stop producing testosterone on its own.
In addition, anabolic steroids have side effects, they negatively affect the liver, inhibiting its work, disrupting blood circulation. As a result, harmful substances accumulate in the body, therefore, malignant neoplasms can occur. In addition, when taking anabolic steroids, blood pressure, blood cholesterol levels, and, accordingly, the risk of cardiovascular diseases increase.

Technologies

V last years scientists are actively working to create an artificial muscle that perfectly replicates the real human muscle. Such an invention will help not only in plastic surgery, an artificial muscle can be implanted in the heart to normalize its work.
Scientists have made a muscle from polymers that perfectly mimics real human muscle. They contract and work great, but scientists are embarrassed that such muscles are not strong enough, and do not always fulfill their functions, they can tear, so it is difficult to talk about a full life in this case.
In addition, artificial muscles were very expensive, so they would never be available to ordinary people. Now scientists are actively studying the possibility of creating muscles and their implantation into the human body, for sure in a few decades they will succeed, and plastic surgery will do big step forward.

The best

The best way to get real muscle is by exercising regularly and eating right. This method is not only the safest, but it really will raise self-esteem, strengthen the body, because in order to achieve such heights, you need to try very hard and train for a long time.
It is easiest to insert silicone muscles, or to use medications, but does this add to a person's self-confidence and health. Until now, such methods are considered harmful and real athletes do not respect them. The best way make the body beautiful and fit - work out in the gym.

Magnification (video)