- A robot half the width of a human hair has been given
legs powered by living heart muscle. It is the first time muscle tissue
has been used to propel a micro-machine.
-
- Nasa, the American space agency, which is funding the
research, hopes that swarms of crawling "musclebots" might, one
day, plug holes in spacecraft made by micrometeorites.
-
- Another possibility is the development of muscle-based
nerve stimulators that would allow paralysed people to breathe without
the help of a ventilator.
-
- The device, created at the University of California in
Los Angeles, is an arch of silicon 50 micrometres wide. Attached to the
underside of the arch, a cord of rat heart muscle fibres has been grown.
Contraction and relaxation of the heart tissue makes the arch bend and
stretch to produce a crawling motion. The muscle, which has to be viewed
under a microscope to be seen, is fuelled by a simple glucose nutrient.
-
- New Scientist magazine said yesterday: "While motors
need electricity, muscles can draw their energy from glucose; perhaps deposited
on the surface where the robot will be working."
-
- © 2004 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd
-
- http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health/story.jsp?story=495178
|
