Number one...
Working with polypyrrole—-the polymer of choice for most artificial muscle research—-Madden and Swager have engineered molecules that undergo a fundamental change in their structure when a voltage is applied. The new molecules go through an accordion-like deformation, stretching out and becoming highly elongated, then buckling in. On a larger scale, this movement mimics that way mammalian muscles work, which is why Madden and his colleagues are so excited. The material created from these molecules looks nothing like human muscle. The thin, black ribbon feels almost like electrical tape. But, "these materials are 100 times stronger than mammalian muscle," Madden claims, with guarded enthusiasm. Guarded, because these results haven't yet been
published.
Number two.
Belle [The monkey] wore a cap glued to her head. Under it were four plastic connectors. The connectors fed arrays of microwires--each wire finer than the finest sewing thread--into different regions of Belle's motor cortex, the brain tissue that plans movements and sends instructions for enacting the plans to nerve cells in the spinal cord. Each of the 100 microwires lay beside a single motor neuron. When a neuron produced an electrical discharge--an "action potential"--the adjacent microwire would capture the current and send it up through a small wiring bundle that ran from Belle's cap to a box of electronics on a table next to the booth. The box, in turn, was linked to two computers, one next door and the other half a country away.
All they need is the diamond armour and we have a battle mech.
