ARTIFICIAL muscles for robots could be grown on farms.
Electroactive polymers can now be made out of corn starch, where previously it was only possible to use petroleum. These polymers expand and contract when an electric current is passed through them, potentially making them useful as robot muscles or actuators for nanomachines.
Researchers with the US Department of Agriculture in Peoria, Illinois, heated corn starch to break down the crystals then “doped” the resulting polymer with compounds called halides, which improve conductivity (Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, vol 67, p 735).
Corn starch is not only renewable but cheap –…
