One thing I’ve been researching lately has been muscle wire. It’s pretty cool stuff. You heat it / put the right amount of current through it, and it contracts. Cool it / turn it off, it expands back to its original length. And all while totally silent. Neat.

Most of them seem to only contract between 5 and 7 percent. That’s fine, but requires you do something to do something mechanical to make larger movements.

The stuff in the video above however, Biometal helix (BMX), contracts about 50%. It’s weaker, but for a lot of things, it’s still just fine.

Now if I can just find some of the stuff….