For years artificial muscles have promised to deliver a more flexible, more durable alternative to electric motors and hydraulic systems. These lab-made actuators are usually created by putting an electrical charge into a piece of polymer or into an aerogel sheet made from carbon nanotubes, causing those materials to expand and contract. This motion could someday be used to power turbines, animate robots or move prosthetic limbs.

In a new study published in the October 14 issue of Science , an international team of researchers describes how they’re taking carbon nanotube artificial muscles in a new direction. Scientists at the University of Texas at Dallas’ Alan G. MacDiarmid NanoTech Institute have already demonstrated in the lab the ability of these muscle-like carbon nanotubes to flex even in extreme temperatures that would freeze or, on the other end of the spectrum, decompose electroactive polymer-based artificial muscles .

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