Ever wonder how superheroes get such absurd muscles? I mean, when’s the last time you ever saw one in a gym? Sure, Superman developed his biceps by hauling car around and Clark Kent is likely built under the bland and shapeless clothes he usually wears. I’m sure Bruce Wayne is too, but the minute he turns into Batman his Pecs broaden and harden into chest-shields (maybe it’s the costume?). Spiderman shapes his shoulders by scaling buildings and whipping around with sticky string, but his bulging muscles seemed to be a serendipitous side effect of the radioactive spider bite. And what about the Hulk? Dr. Banner doesn’t just become a muscle-bound beast—he becomes the Mr. Universe of beasts. And even Buffy has a sudden onset of muscle, even if she doesn’t particularly look it–one day, she’s hefting pom-poms, and the next day she’s vaulting fences and bending metal with her bare hands.
Suspension of disbelief, you say? Certainly this fundamental premise of superhero stories warrants it.
But as it turns out, while science can’t cause the sudden appearance of freakish muscles, it is possible to create muscles without breaking a sweat, and to make them in certain shapes and sizes.
Scientists have created a few versions of artificial muscles. Like real muscles, they make physical movement possible, but they’re not naturally occurring, nor can they move themselves.
This awesome jellyfish robot has artificial muscles that run on hydrogen-oxygen cocktail that, when catalyzed by platinum, causes a reaction that produces heat. The heat is then transferred by carbon nanotubes to the artificial muscles, an alloy that becomes flexible when heated. The “shape-memory” alloy functions like a Tempurpedic mattress, returning to its original shape as soon as the heat is removed. The interplay of hot and cold mimics a muscle’s expansion and contraction.
Eventually, scientists hope that Robojelly will be able to extract hydrogen and oxygen from its environment, which would allow it to fuel itself indefinitely.
Recently, scientists from the University of Texas created artificial muscles out of carbon nanotubes that, when woven together like yarn and then filled with paraffin wax, are 200 time stronger than the same-sized human muscles. Heating a nanotube expands the wax, which makes the tube shorter and thicker, simulating muscle contraction. When the wax cools, the tubes become long and thin, which simulates muscle expansion.
These carbon nanotube yarns can seal their “pores” to resist damage; longer ropes could be used to make uniforms that would help protect firefighters and other high-risk workers. Eventually, these artificial muscles could be used in medical devices and robots, or for other small tasks.
While these muscles have mastered mobility, they bear little resemblance to the ones that contract and relax via impulses from the brain.
Recently, scientists from the Université de Strasbourg in France created molecules sensitive to pH levels. When strung together, the molecular chain contracts roughly one billionth of a meter in a high pH solution and expands by the same amount in a low pH solution. The tiny degree of the contraction and relaxation lead scientists to create longer molecular chains that had a larger range of movement observable with a magnifying glass.
Roxtane, a chemical, compromises these positively-charged molecules, which are surrounded by a macrocycle ring. When more hydrogen ions, which carry a positive charge, are introduced to the surrounding environment, the pH level increases and the ring moves to one side of the roxatane molecule. When hydrogen ions are removed, it moves in the opposite direction.
When scientists make a chain, the roxatane molecules are held together by ligand molecules and metal ions. The higher the pH, or the more hydrogen ions are introduced, the closer together the molecules sit; the lower the pH, the further apart the molecules stretch.
While currently small-scale, there seems to be no apparent scientific reason that this process couldn’t be adapted on a macroscopic level. Deliberately engineering molecules or “molecular machines” to move and work, much as our own muscles do, has countless possible applications once molecular chains are bound together to comprise fibers. Artificial muscles are only the beginning.
This is one example of Nanotechnology, which many scientists and futurists believe will revolutionize medicine, among many other things. The potential of altering and enhancing the body with cellular-based technologies is one reason that some scientists believe in the possibility of immortality by 2045.
Lucky for us, now we don’t even have to be superheroes on the inside. We can just wait for science to make us into superheroes on the outside. Sadly, the invisible jet remains a fantasy. For now.
