{"id":23146,"date":"2016-03-06T02:47:21","date_gmt":"2016-03-06T10:47:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2016\/03\/new-metal-can-become-soft-and-stiff-just-like-human-muscles"},"modified":"2017-06-04T10:45:07","modified_gmt":"2017-06-04T17:45:07","slug":"new-metal-can-become-soft-and-stiff-just-like-human-muscles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2016\/03\/new-metal-can-become-soft-and-stiff-just-like-human-muscles","title":{"rendered":"New Metal Can Become Soft and Stiff Just Like Human Muscles"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.embedly.com\/widgets\/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fembed%2FJie4r4tcU3Q%3Ffeature%3Doembed&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DJie4r4tcU3Q&image=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FJie4r4tcU3Q%2Fhqdefault.jpg&key=a0e34f678e9a44f4b746684241ddaf3f&type=text%2Fhtml&schema=youtube\" width=\"854\" height=\"480\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>This looks very promising.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>The human body is designed pretty well: Our muscles are able to switch between strength and dexterity, limbs stiffening when we do an energy-fueled task like lifting a bowling ball and softening when we do something delicate like painting with a brush. This ability is very rarely replicated in engineering systems, namely because it\u2019s expensive, but also because it\u2019s been damn hard to clone.<\/p>\n<p>However, HRL Laboratories \u2014 the same Malibu-based researchers who brought you<a href=\"https:\/\/www.inverse.com\/article\/6785-boeing-s-microlattice-is-99-percent-air\"> microlattice<\/a> \u2014 has announced they\u2019ve been able to replicate the reactions of human muscle in metal. Their goal is to use this new technology to create cars with smoother rides and, more intriguingly, more human-like robots.<\/p>\n<p>In a paper published in the most recent issue of<em> Science Advances<\/em>, the researchers claim that their technology, \u201cvariable stiffness vibration isolator\u201d can change from stiff to soft by a factor of 100 in milliseconds, independent of how much mechanical force is applied. This technology, they argue, far surpasses any previous mechanisms trying to do the same thing.<\/p>\n<p><!-- Link: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.inverse.com\/article\/11908-new-metal-can-become-soft-and-stiff-just-like-human-muscles\">https:\/\/www.inverse.com\/article\/11908-new-metal-can-become-s...an-muscles<\/a> --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This looks very promising. The human body is designed pretty well: Our muscles are able to switch between strength and dexterity, limbs stiffening when we do an energy-fueled task like lifting a bowling ball and softening when we do something delicate like painting with a brush. This ability is very rarely replicated in engineering systems, [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":395,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,38,6,1491],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-engineering","category-robotics-ai","category-transportation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/395"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23146"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23146\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62536,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23146\/revisions\/62536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}