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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 body forms 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, tormenting themselves with diets, physical activity, tightening into corsets and, in extreme cases, communicating on Skype strictly in a conversation mode without video, or, in the case of 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 sheet of paper. Despite the thickness of the shell, its filler partly "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 silicone gel. They did not emit a crunch, but they had a higher degree of "sweating" and, much worse, they were often torn. 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 memory original form... 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; 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, the 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 bare breasts, 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, foam and even, probably by analogy with glass, ivory balls. Among the listed methods of implantation, the most harmless was the adipose tissue of the patient herself, 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 vinyl) 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, the filler was 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 the owners of silicone breasts, Dow Corning paid more than $ 3 billion in compensation and went bankrupt.

Silicone buttocks... This species is called plastic surgery gluteoplasty. The purpose of using this group of implants, as in the case of silicone breasts, is associated with increasing the aesthetic characteristics of the body - to make the 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 flattening is typical for 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 did not have a natural origin, since no training would allow them to form such convex cubes and balls. 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 enhance growth muscle fibers and causing blood flow to the muscles. The costs of steroids were quite impressive, ranging from $ 25,000 to $ 30,000 annually. Wherein bulky 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 that 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 in the press is called 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 jocks" who consider themselves irresistibly beautiful (I do not share their opinion) - the British-Brazilian Rodrigo Alves and the American Justin Jetlik:

Modern robots can do a lot. But at the same time, they are far from human lightness and gracefulness of movements. And the fault is - imperfect artificial muscles. Scientists from many countries are trying to solve this problem. The article will be devoted to brief overview their amazing inventions.

Polymeric muscles from Singapore scientists

A step towards more recently made by inventors from the National Today, heavyweight androids move through the work of hydraulic systems. A significant disadvantage of the latter is low speed. Artificial muscles for robots, presented by Singaporean scientists, allow cyborgs not only to lift objects that are 80 times heavier than their own weight, but also to do it as quickly as a person.

The innovative development, stretching five times in length, helps robots "bypass" even ants, which, as you know, can carry objects 20 times heavier than their own little body. Polymeric muscles have the following benefits:

• flexibility;
• striking strength;
• elasticity;
• the ability to change its shape in a few seconds;
• the ability to convert kinetic energy into electrical energy.

However, the scientists are not going to stop there - their plans are to create artificial muscles that would allow the robot to lift a load 500 times heavier than itself!

Discovery from Harvard - muscle made from electrodes and elastomer

Inventors at Harvard's School of Applied and Engineering Sciences have unveiled brand new artificial muscles for so-called "soft" robots. According to scientists, their brainchild, consisting of a soft elastomer and electrodes, which contain carbon nanotubes, is not inferior in quality to human muscles!

All robots existing today, as already mentioned, are based on drives, whose mechanism is hydraulics or pneumatics. Such systems are powered by compressed air or chemical reactions. This does not allow constructing a robot that is as soft and fast as a human. Harvard scientists have eliminated this shortcoming by creating a qualitatively new concept of artificial muscles for robots.

The new "musculature" of cyborgs is a multilayer structure in which nanotube electrodes, created in Clark's laboratory, drive the upper and lower layers of flexible elastomers, which are the brainchild of scientists already at the University of California. Such muscles are ideal for both "soft" androids and for laparoscopic instruments in surgery.

The Harvard scientists did not stop at this remarkable invention. One of their latest developments is the stingray biorobot. Its constituents are rat heart muscle cells, gold and silicone.

The invention of the Bauchmann group: another type of artificial muscle based on carbon nanotubes

Back in 1999, in the Australian town of Kirchberg at the 13th meeting of the International Winter School on the electronic properties of innovative materials, scientist Ray Bauchman, who works for Allied Signal and leads an international research group, made a presentation. His message was about making artificial muscles.

Developers under the leadership of Ray Bauchman were able to present in the form of sheets of nanopaper. The tubes in this invention were intertwined and entangled in every possible way. The nanopaper itself resembled ordinary paper in its appearance - it was possible to hold it in your hands, cut it into strips and pieces.

The group's experiment was seemingly very simple - the scientists attached pieces of nanopaper to different sides of duct tape and dipped the structure into an electrically conductive saline solution. After the low-volt battery was turned on, both nanostrips lengthened, especially the one that was connected to the negative pole of the electric battery; then the paper curved. The artificial muscle model was functioning.

Bauchman himself believes that his invention, after a qualitative modernization, will significantly transform robotics, because such carbon muscles, when flexing / extending, create an electrical potential - they produce energy. In addition, such musculature is three times stronger than human, can function at extremely high and low temperatures, using low current and voltage for its work. It is quite possible to use it for prosthetics of human muscles.

University of Texas: Artificial Muscle Made from Fishing Line and Sewing Thread

One of the most striking is the work of a research team from the University of Texas, located in Dallas. She managed to get a model of artificial muscles, which in its strength and power resembles a jet engine - 7.1 hp / kg! Such muscles are hundreds of times stronger and more productive than human muscles. But the most amazing thing here is that they were constructed from primitive materials - high-strength polymer fishing line and sewing thread.

The nutrition of such a muscle is a temperature difference. It is provided with a sewing thread covered with a thin layer of metal. However, in the future, the muscles of robots may be powered by temperature changes in their environment. This property, by the way, can be used for weather-adapting clothing and other similar devices.

If you twist the polymer in one direction, then it will shrink sharply when heated and quickly stretch when cooled, and if in the other direction, then the opposite is true. Such a simple design can, for example, rotate the overall rotor at a speed of 10 thousand rpm. The advantage of such artificial muscles from fishing line is that they are able to contract up to 50% of their original length (human only by 20%). In addition, they are distinguished by their amazing endurance - this musculature does not "get tired" even after a million repetitions of the action!

From Texas to Cupid

The discovery of scientists from Dallas has inspired many scientists from around the world. However, only one robotics engineer succeeded in repeating their experience - Alexander Nikolaevich Semochkin, head of the laboratory. information technologies at BSPU.

At first, the inventor was patiently waiting for new articles in Science about the massive implementation of the invention of his American colleagues. Since this did not happen, the Amur scientist decided with his like-minded people to repeat the wonderful experience and create artificial muscles from copper wire with his own hands and fishing line... But, alas, the copy was not viable.

Science and Life // Illustrations

Science and Life // Illustrations

Not even ten years have passed since the discovery of exotic structures - carbon nanotubes, but they continue to amaze researchers. Carbon nanotubes are the thinnest sheets of well-known graphite rolled into a tube with a diameter of 0.7 to 1.5-2.0 nm and a length of up to several microns (see "Science and Life" No. 11, 1993).

The high strength of the carbon-carbon bond, the small size, the network structure of the nanotube shells (they consist of connected hexagons) and the absence of defects provide their unusual mechanical properties: they are 10-12 times stronger and 6 times lighter than steel. A thread with a diameter of 1 mm from such nanotubes could withstand a 20-ton load, hundreds of billions of times larger than its own weight. And the diameter of a single nanotube is so small (50 thousand times smaller than the diameter of a human hair) that a nanocable from the Earth to the Moon could be wound on a coil the size of a poppy seed.

All this arouses considerable enthusiasm of materials scientists, who recently recalled, for example, even the fantastic idea of ​​the American writer Arthur Clarke to connect a spacecraft in geostationary orbit with a lift to the Earth.

The unusual electronic properties of carbon nanotubes are about to find application in the first displays with field emitters and in tunneling microscopes, and they sparked a large series of works in attempts to create a molecular transistor, the size of which would be several orders of magnitude smaller than the smallest electronic devices currently in existence.

Another area of ​​their use was outlined by a message that became a scientific sensation.

In February - March 1999 in the town of Kirchberg, in Tyrol (Austria), the 13th International Winter School on the Electronic Properties of New Materials was held. Among the rather large number of reports on nanotubes, a report by an international research group headed by Ray Baughman of Allied Signal attracted general attention. The talk was devoted to the creation of artificial muscles and was later presented in an article published in the journal Science (Science, 1999. v. 284, No. 5418, p. 1340-1344, May 21).

They have been trying to create artificial muscles for a long time, and several ways have been seen to solve this problem. You can, for example, use the piezoelectric effect: a change in the size of a crystal or ceramic when an electric voltage is applied. One can play on the ability of layered substances to expand in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the layers when chemicals are introduced between the layers. But these paths are either difficult or ineffective.

The Bauchmann group used a different principle. Carbon nanotubes can be produced in the form of nanopaper sheets, in which the tubes are entangled, intertwined with each other. Such nanopaper can be taken in hand, cut into strips. The first experiments were surprisingly simple.

The researchers glued two strips of nano-paper to opposite sides of sticky tape, attached electrodes to the ends, and dipped them into a saline solution that provides electrical conductivity. When an electric battery, giving a voltage of several volts, was turned on, both strips of nanopaper lengthened slightly, but the one connected to the negative pole of the battery lengthened more, and they bent. The artificial muscle (actuator) was working.

Of course, such a device is too primitive to be used instead of biceps and triceps today. But it is already clear that this design is much more promising than any other. Instead of a saline solution, it is proposed to use a conductive polymer, creating a lightweight and durable composite material.

It has already been shown that artificial muscles will be at least three times "stronger" than conventional ones, that is, they will be able to withstand much greater loads at the same size. Unlike metals, carbon nanotubes do not collapse from fatigue and can operate at rather high temperatures. And the voltage and current used for their work are small.

Over time, artificial muscles can be used for prosthetics of organs and individual muscles (say, heart). On their basis, it will be easy to construct "hands" and "fingers" of robots operating in space cold or 1000-degree heat, in a vacuum and in an environment of aggressive gases.

Carbon muscle can also be used to generate energy because, according to Bauchman, the effect is reversible: flexing and unbending the strips creates an electrical potential. Elements connected in a chain can use the energy of waves, ebbs and flows in power plants of a new type. Each car can eventually be equipped with a lightweight device that recharges the batteries when braking.

Scientists presented innovative artificial muscles that are a hundred times stronger than human ones. Three independent research teams have developed their own options, differing in materials and applications.

Getty Images

All synthetic muscles have one thing in common - as a rule, they are elastic fibers that stretch and contract, like their natural counterpart. Ray Bowman, Director, is recognized as a pioneer in the development of artificial muscles. In the early stages of the study, Bowman and his team worked with the most familiar materials found in any home - sewing thread and fishing line. They sought to prove and demonstrate that even basic materials can form muscle-like structures. In the course of laboratory tests, Texans came up with the best, in their opinion, materials for the formation of artificial muscle fibers - silk and bamboo.

UT Dallas

Scientists have also developed a special shell that responds to electrochemical and temperature fluctuations. The fibers covered with this membrane contract and move in the same way as human muscles move under the influence of external stimuli. A similar variant of synthetic muscle can be used in the production of smart clothes. For example, muscle fibers placed inside tissue can automatically expand the "pores" of the material in response to increased humidity or increased body temperature.

Science | AAAS

Researchers at the University of Bordeaux have developed their own version of an artificial muscle made from elastic polymer and graphene. Their synthetic muscle resembles a high-tech counterpart rubber band used in rubber-engine aircraft models. The chief researcher of the project, Jinkai Yuan, and his colleagues have tried to ensure that this "elastic" does not have to be twisted after each stretching: the combination of graphene and polymer in the composition of the fiber creates a "memory effect". The elastic polymer can stretch and contract, but control of the degree of contraction occurs through the conductive graphene layer. Yuan suggests that such a concept has potential in medicine, for example, such fibers can be used to control the operation of miniature valves inside medical devices.

Science | AAAS
Science | AAAS

Unlike graphene-polymer fibers, which are set in motion by electricity, the principle of operation of synthetic muscles developed by scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is much closer to humans. The MIT team led by Mehmet Kanik presented HDPE and Elastomer fibers. When heated, heat spreads evenly through the fibers, but due to the difference in the coefficients of thermal expansion, one of the polymers quickly contracts, and the second keeps it from chaotic compression, forcing it to curl in the form of a spiral. The inspiration for the researchers was the cucumber plant-tendrils, which contract to regulate the pressure in the cells. Fiber shrinkage occurs even with slight temperature fluctuations, so the material does not suffer from sudden temperature changes and does not lose its properties even after ten thousand compression cycles. At the same time, such an artificial muscle can lift loads, the mass of which is 650 times its own.

Mehmet Kanik and Sirma Orguc / Massachusetts Institute of Technology

In laboratory tests, specialists experimented with different temperatures: when the fiber was heated to 14 ° C, the total length of the filaments was reduced by 50%. In addition, the researchers tried to use synthetic muscles to control a small robotic arm. By heating and cooling the fibers, they forced the hand to lift and move small loads. Moreover, by changing the location and ratio of threads made of different materials inside the canvas, scientists were able to control the direction of movement. The force of contraction can also be adjusted by changing the proportions and diameters of the strands of the starting polymers.

Polina Anikeeva (MIT) Science | AAAS

At this stage of work, artificial muscles are significantly inferior to the real ones in terms of their efficiency. Today, even the most advanced synthetic muscle fibers convert no more than 3-5% of the energy expended into useful work, the remaining energy is lost in the form of heat. If engineers and biotechs succeed in eliminating energy waste, the possibilities of using synthetic muscles will be endless, from smart clothes and prostheses to robotics and exoskeletons.

24 February 2014

How to make artificial muscles from fishing line

Researchers at the University of Texas at Dallas (USA) have presented synthetic muscles that are 100 times more powerful than real muscle fibers of 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 make 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 ones are able to decrease by 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, the scientists especially emphasize the exceptional simplicity of their manufacture: they say, any student will do this during an ordinary laboratory, the main thing is to observe physical conditions at which you will deform the thread. The genius of the authors of the idea is that they managed to guess the huge 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 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, which concerns efficiency and economy: how much heat (and, consequently, electrical or chemical energy) needs to be spent on their mechanical work? The authors admit that, like all artificial muscles in general, their fibers in this sense are not particularly effective, 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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