You are walking on a street, passing by multiple people that look like normal human beings. 3 of the people you just passed were created by human reproduction. 2 of them were created in a lab and are living as an artificial being. Imagine a world like this where you wouldn’t be able to tell artificial from not in terms of actual humans. Shazed Aziz’s discovery makes this dystopian possibility closer to our future than we could have ever imagined. Interested in the study of artificial muscles backed up with a PhD studying the topic, Aziz researched the constituents of the machines that serve as quintessential models for how our muscles trigger stimuli into actions powered by our brains. These machines were then compared by researchers and scientists like Aziz to natural triggers experienced by other animals such as octopus tentacles, elephant trunks, etc. Aziz commenced with a plan to experiment if he could imitate the expansion and contraction of a plant that served as an inspiration for such endeavors: a cucumber plant. 6 months later, Aziz finished the primary model of his ideas, a device made up of tied up yarn injected with particular polymers that are able to soak up and hold water, also known as hydrogels. Upon constantly testing to see if this would mimic the stimuli in a cucumber plant, Aziz and his partners discovered that this alone could move smaller objects such as paperclips. This basic model was the first paradigm for moving devices using fluid components, a revolutionary discovery that branched off from traditionally used materials such as sturdy metal couplings. However, this is the start of plant-like actuators rather than mimicking human muscles. In opposition, the creation of soft muscles for robots leads to endeavors on a grander scale such as just making those robots look like regular humans, and before you know it, you might have friends that say they aren’t artificially created when they really were.

Original Article:

Levy, Max G. “This Artificial Muscle Moves Stuff on Its Own.” Wired, https://www.wired.com/story/this-artificial-muscle-moves-stuff-on-its-own/