artificial muscles

[Demosthenes]

is there any material that the human body wouldn't reject, that could also work like a muscle, if so would it be lighter? stronger? more efficiant?

[peber]

Try taking a look at this:

 

http://www.darksciences.com/feature.php?uniqueid=kCB5tDzGPAbPAFAgr

 

They are robot muscles so i'm not sure about integrating it with the human body yet but as far as i know nothing like what you ask exists as of now.

[Mr Skeptic]

It would likely not be glucose powered, and so useless. Muscles are surprisingly good, especially considering they are mostly water.

[Mokele]

We actually have those pneumatic muscles around lab - they're good, but still nowhere near as controllable or strong, and they require a huge associate set of machinery to supply a constant flow of compressed air.

[Xittenn]

I don't suppose you have ever met an individual with a prosthetic limb...........pretty dark ages. Having personal interest in the subject myself(not missing any limbs) I have found no such thing, especially a lighter version thereof. EAPs(Electro Active Polymers) and NEAPs(non-Electro Active Polymers) are being researched for various relevant purposes.....

 

http://arxiv.org/ftp/cs/papers/0411/0411025.pdf

http://www.nsti.org/news/item.html?id=280

 

Please expand on this should you find anything. Oh and sign me up for a pair of wings, I've always wanted to be an angel...............I have the crop top!

[jamey2k9]

not that i known of but there are certain machines that can be used to replace lost body parts e.g. your arm and they work by reading certain messages encripted in the electrons (or something like that anyway) used to move the body giving you the ability to move the machine replication of the lost body part

 

to go into finer detail say my arm was cut of i would feel i could still be able to move my arm these feelings are called phantom movements the artificial arm will pick up these feelings and move accordingly but they are slower heavier and less efficient and thats the most sophisticated fake parts i know about i think the best parts are the real ones

[Mokele]

The various polymers around are good, but not good enough yet. Actual muscle is surprisingly powerful, fast, and flexible.

 

To give a point of comparison, I'm in a muscle physiology lab right now, working with frogs. The plantaris muscle (calf muscle) of a moderate sized frog is roughly the size of an almond shell. This little lump of tissue can go from resting to active inside of 50 ms, can contract by up to 30% (if unloaded), and can generate 15 lbs of force.

 

Stop and think about that for a second - a lump of flesh the size of an almond shell generating enough force to lift a heavy textbook off a table.

 

They're really amazing biological machines, when you get down to it.