Luiz F. S. Borges

Robot abundance, one NEO at a time. More tomorrow.

The tunnel diode is an incredible piece of technology. You make a PN junction ~45 Si atoms wide and you get a device that directly demonstrates Quantum tunneling and yields a true NEGATIVE resistance.

Artificial Muscles Are About to Make Lifelike Robots and Cyborgs Mainstream The human body spent millions of years perfecting muscles to master movement. Scientists still don’t fully understand how they work, but the race to replicate them is well underway. Amid a global push toward humanlike robots, a new class of artificial muscles is rapidly advancing. Research labs and robotics firms are building on breakthroughs born out desperation decades ago. They say they’re close to making the eerily humanlike systems commercially viable. If they’re right, this could be the beginning of a future filled with robots indistinguishable from humans, cyborgs with capabilities beyond biological limits, and clothing that comes alive with interaction. The modern path toward artificial muscles actually dates back to the 1950s with research by Joseph McKibben, an American physicist and engineer whose early career included work on the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos, where he contributed to the development of the first atomic bomb under Robert Oppenheimer. Years after the war, his focus shifted from nuclear research to human-centered engineering. When polio crippled his 13-year-old daughter, he set out to make a powered brace to help her do tasks with her hands and arms gain. In severe cases, the virus caused paralysis by attacking nerve cells in the spinal cord that send signals from the brain to muscles. Orthopedic braces available at the time could hold limbs in place but they couldn’t help them move or do anything. McKibben’s idea was fundamentally different: a lightweight, flexible system that could mimic real muscle function, contracting and relaxing to assist joint motion. It came to be known as the McKibben Artificial Muscle. He collaborated with Hal Schulte, a physician and researcher, to refine the concept. The pneumatic system used a rubber tube encased in a braided mesh. When pressurized, the tube expanded outward but was constrained by the braid, which made it contract lengthwise. It remained primarily a proof of concept because of technical limitations. The system was too bulky for practical use by people, but it continued to evolve through industry and research periods. As multi-material 3D printers entered the mainstream, building soft muscle-like systems became much more practical. It meant engineers could easily print soft and rigid parts together in a single structure. Silicone casting and molding systems made it easier to quickly manufacture flexible components, while laser cutters enabled precise shaping of soft materials. Meanwhile new microfabrication techniques, like soft molding and microfluidics, made it possible to add tiny internal channels for fluids.

Wow that's a lotta hours!!!

Students who take notes by hand get better grades than those who use laptops, especially in STEM fields.