University of Texas: Artificial Muscles More Powerful than Nature's

Have you ever dreamed of creating an artificial muscle that will surpass nature's strength? “Nature has been developing her technologies for many hundreds of millions of years," said Ray Baughman. 

By observing the inner workings of an octopus's leg or an elephant's trunk, scientists have created muscles from carbon nanotubes that could one day power machines. “By looking at the way in which nature has solved problems like muscles, we can advance our own technologies.”  Baughman is Director of the NanoTech Institute at the University of Texas at Dallas. His lab creates very tiny artificial muscles by spinning filaments of invisibly small carbon nanotubes into an extraordinary yarn.  Pound per pound, this nano-yarn is stronger than steel, yet is so light it almost floats in air.
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University of Texas: Artificial Muscles More Powerful than Nature's

The University of Texas at Dallas is a public research university in the University of Texas System. The institution, established in 1961 as the Graduate Research Center of the Southwest and later renamed the Southwest Center for Advanced Studies (SCAS), began as a research arm of Texas Instruments.