A test of strength for artificial muscles

Think for a minute about what your body is doing as you read this. Your eyes scanning the page; your fingers tapping a keyboard or swiping a screen; your hands perhaps holding a paper copy of Chemistry World; your back supporting you as you sit in a chair. Even when doing something as sedentary as reading, our muscles are constantly at work. Behind the scenes, as it were, cardiac muscles are keeping our hearts beating and smooth muscles are performing other involuntary functions, such as digestion. Muscle tissue is extraordinarily versatile, but its structure appears quite simple. It is not surprising, therefore, that the idea of emulating its properties has been around for many generations. Our growing understanding of the complex structure and mechanism of muscle fibres at the molecular level has undoubtedly inspired many groups now working to develop artificial actuators with similar properties to skeletal muscle.