3D-printed cyborg muscle produces artificial heartbeat

February 26, 2013

You might expect a robot’s heartbeat to be a metallic ticking. But the pulsing in this video isn’t completely artificial: it’s powered by living material, New Scientist reports.

Created by Peter Walters from the University of the West of England in Bristol, UK, and colleagues, the pump uses the gas released by live yeast to generate pressure and distend a membrane, turning it into an artificial muscle.

(More)