Name: Supercoiling Muscles
Uploaded: 2022-01-30T02:12:17+00:00
Duration: 2 min 12 s
Description: Could this actually be what they call Morgellons, I believe so. Maybe a malfunction of the technology. This overview describes a new type of artificial muscle inspired by DNA. Full details of the work

2 years ago

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Could this actually be what they call Morgellons, I believe so. Maybe a malfunction of the technology.

This overview describes a new type of artificial muscle inspired by DNA. Full details of the work are available in our paper published in Science Robotics, Volume 6, Issue 53, 2021. (DOI: 10.1126/scirobotics.abf4788)

Supercoiling in DNA and chromatin

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24584092/

A Low-cost Inchworm-inspired Soft Robot Driven by Supercoiled Polymer Artificial Muscle

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Yang-Yang-56/publication/333427777_A_Low-cost_Inchworm-inspired_Soft_Robot_Driven_by_Supercoiled_Polymer_Artificial_Muscle/links/5cf0841d4585153c3da79ecb/A-Low-cost-Inchworm-inspired-Soft-Robot-Driven-by-Supercoiled-Polymer-Artificial-Muscle.pdf

DNA-Inspired ‘Supercoiling’ Fibres Could Make Powerful Artificial Muscles For Robots

https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2021/04/dna-inspired-supercoiling-fibres-could-make-powerful-artificial-muscles-for-robots/

The double helix of DNA is one of the most iconic symbols in science.
By imitating the structure of this complex genetic molecule we have found a way to make artificial muscle fibres far more powerful than those found in nature,
with potential applications in many kinds of miniature machinery such as prosthetic hands and dextrous robotic devices.

The power of the helix DNA is not the only helix in nature.
Flip through any biology textbook and you’ll see helices everywhere from the alpha-helix shapes of
individual proteins to the “coiled coil” helices of fibrous protein assemblies like keratin in hair.

Some bacteria, such as spirochetes, adopt helical shapes. Even the cell walls of plants can contain helically arranged cellulose fibres.

Muscle tissue too is composed of helically wrapped proteins that form thin filaments. And there are many other examples, which poses the question of whether the helix endows a particular evolutionary advantage.

Many of these naturally occurring helical structures are involved in making things move,
like the opening of seed pods and the twisting of trunks, tongues and tentacles.
These systems share a common structure: helically oriented fibres embedded in a squishy matrix which allows complex mechanical actions like bending,
twisting, lengthening and shortening, or coiling.

Fibres in a twist
Ten years ago my work on artificial muscles brought me to think a lot about helices. My colleagues and I discovered a simple way to make powerful rotating artificial muscle fibres by simply twisting synthetic yarns.

These yarn fibres could rotate by untwisting when we expanded the volume of the yarn by heating it, making it absorb small molecules, or by charging it like a battery. Shrinking the fibre caused the fibres to re-twist.

Supercoiling can create extra-strong synthetic muscles

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/dna-supercoiling

Supercoiled Structure of Circular DNA:

https://bio.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Microbiology/Book%3A_Microbiology_(Boundless)/7%3A_Microbial_Genetics/7.02%3A_Prokaryotic_Genomes/7.2B%3A_Supercoiling

Understanding DNA supercoiling

https://www.sciencedirect.com/sdfe/reader/pii/S0959437X13001500/pdf

Artificial Muscle May Lead To ‘Smart’ Clothing

https://www.asianscientist.com/2012/11/in-the-lab/hybrid-yarn-muscle-carbon-nanotubes-smart-responsive-textiles-2012/

Tetrapyrrole signal as a cell-cycle coordinator from organelle to nuclear DNA replication in plant cells

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/23785140_Tetrapyrrole_signal_as_a_cell-cycle_coordinator_from_organelle_to_nuclear_DNA_replication_in_plant_cells/download

Electricity Generation With A Twist

https://www.asianscientist.com/2017/08/tech/energy-yarn-electricity-stretch/