I saw some of this metal in action when visiting the Venus Project people. Fresco wanted to build self-erecting dome buildings out of it.
Some colleagues at the nearby University of Florida have found a different application for the stuff.
Cyborgs anyone?
The tiny stents get their so-called "shape memory" from an unusual alloy called nitinol, which exhibits one shape when cool, but forms another when heated. This property has made the alloy useful in an increasing number of small-scale medical and consumer products that depend on motion, yet do not have enough space for motors or pumps.
Intrigued by the alloy's biomedical potential, University of Florida researchers have recently begun investigating it for the much larger application of prosthetic limbs.
Under the direction of mechanical engineering Professor Carl Crane, UF master's student Jose Santiago-Anadon built a nitinol device that can move the equivalent of more than 100 pounds. While the apparatus is merely a weight-lifting machine now, the hope is the research will one day lead to a nitinol "muscle" that can mimic the strength and motion of the real thing – doing the work of a tendon or other major muscle in a next-generation prosthesis.
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