A Taiwanese scientist has discovered that onion cells plated with gold can be used to make artificial muscles. The breakthrough was reported on Wednesday by the American scientific journal Applied Physics Letters.
An article in the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday said that researchers had been trying to make artificial muscles using different types of polymers that could contract or expand. However, they had not been able to find one that could also bend at the same time.
A National Taiwan University professor of mechanical engineering, Shih Wen-pin, who led the study, said that gold-plated onion cells can contract, expand, and bend just like human muscles.
As current methods for making artificial muscles are costly and ineffective, Shih opted to look for a cheaper and more convenient way to make them. Shih says that while he’s not a fan of onions, he came up with the idea of using onion cells during his junior high school years, when he was studying them under a microscope.