Artificial muscles are not just for building Terminator-like robots, but also for creating soft, flexible robots that can perform delicate tasks like helping out in surgeries, rescuing people from rubble, and picking up trash. And now, thanks to the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems (MPI-IS) in Stuttgart, soft robots are becoming greener than ever before.

In a collaborative effort with Johannes Kepler University (JKU) in Linz and the University of Colorado (CU Boulder), the MPI-IS researchers have developed fully biodegradable artificial muscles. Yes, you heard it right! Robots with muscles that biodegrade.

These biodegradable muscles are based on gelatin, oil, and bioplastics, and can power an electrically driven artificial muscle called HASEL. Just like our muscles, HASELs contract when a voltage is applied across them. And when they're done contracting, they can be disposed of in municipal compost bins, where they fully biodegrade within six months.

Think about it, in the future, robots could be compost for plant growth! It's a genius idea, and it could change the way we think about robotics.

Ellen Rumley, a visiting scientist from CU Boulder, said, "We see an urgent need for sustainable materials in the accelerating field of soft robotics. Biodegradable parts could offer a sustainable solution, especially for single-use applications, like for medical operations, search-and-rescue missions, and manipulation of hazardous substances."

The team faced many challenges, like finding suitable biodegradable plastics that can withstand high voltage and electrical insulation. But they eventually found a combination of materials that can withstand 100,000 actuation cycles at several thousand Volts without signs of electrical failure or loss in performance. (Read more here)

The researchers hope that their work will encourage the robotics community to consider biodegradable materials as a viable option for building robots. And who knows, maybe one day, we'll have robots made entirely of biodegradable materials that will decompose into plant food after they've served their purpose.

It's exciting to see that green technology is making its way into the field of soft robotics. With these biodegradable artificial muscles, we're one step closer to building robots that not only serve a purpose during their lifetime but also leave a positive impact on the environment after they're gone.

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🧬 Elusive Metal Revealed

Penn State's New Biosensor Sheds Light on Manganese

Scientists have engineered a new biosensor that can offer the first dynamic glimpses of manganese, an essential metal ion for life. The sensor is made from a natural protein called lanmodulin that binds rare earth elements with high selectivity. It was genetically reprogrammed to prefer manganese over other common transition metals like iron and copper, a feat defying the trends observed with most transition metal-binding molecules. The team believes that this is the first sensor that is selective enough for manganese for detailed studies of this metal in biological systems. The sensor could have broad applications in biotechnology to advance understanding of photosynthesis, host-pathogen interactions, and neurobiology.

However, scientific understanding of manganese has lagged behind that of other essential metals, in part because of a lack of techniques to visualize its concentration, localization and movement within cells. The new sensor opens the door for all kinds of new research, from studying how manganese works in mammalian systems to understanding how pathogens interact with manganese. (Read more here)

According to Joseph Cotruvo, associate professor of chemistry at Penn State and senior author on the paper, designing proteins to bind to particular metals is an intrinsically difficult problem because there are so many similarities between the transition metals present in cells. But the success of lanmodulin in discriminating between very similar metals is really powerful, and the team plans to use it as a scaffold from which to evolve other types of biological tools for sensing and recovering many different metal ions that have biological and technological importance.

The researchers believe that their sensor could potentially be applied more generally for processes such as separating the transition metal components (manganese, cobalt, and nickel) in lithium-ion battery recycling. "If we can take lanmodulin and turn it into a manganese-binding protein, then what else can we do?" said Cotruvo, emphasizing the promising potential of the new biosensor.