Scientists have found that artificial muscles built from onions, yes, onions, may be the most versatile structure of its kind ever made. Research from scientists at National Taiwan University published on Tuesday in the journal Applied Physics Letters has shown that artificial muscles created from onion cells can move in ways no other artificial muscle can. Although the research is in its early stages, artificial muscles could eventually be used in everything from robotics to artificial limbs.
“This present artificial muscle is the first one made of vegetables,” lead researcher Wen-Pen Shih told Motherboard in an email. “It can bend and contract simultaneously like human muscles, that other existing technology can not do. First of all, an onion is easy to obtain and easy to process,” he said. “We can obtain a thin and single layer of onion cells by simply peeling the vegetable. The dimensions and latticed arrangement of the cells are just right to induce bending and contraction at the same time.”
