魔性新配方：镀金洋葱做机器人仿真皮肤

By applying the electricity at different voltages to gold-painted onion skin, the material moved like a real muscle.

给镀金的洋葱表皮施加不同电压的电流，这种材料便会如同真实的肌肉那样收缩。

Scientists say that artificial muscles for robots can be made by covering onions in gold.

科学家们认为镀金的洋葱(皮)能成为机器人的人造肌肉。

The humble vegetable's skin can stretch and flex like real tissue which previous artificial muscles have been unable to emulate.

这种普通蔬菜的表皮能像真的肌肉组织那样伸展和收缩，而之前的那些人造肌肉都没能模仿出这一特性。

By coating the skin in a film of gold, scientists can then apply an electrical current to it using special equipment to make it expand and contract.

科学家们将洋葱表皮两面镀金，然后用特殊设备向它施加电流，便能让它延展、收缩。

In the tests, scientists took a single layer of skin and washed it, before freeze drying it to remove all water.

在测试中，科学家们取下单层洋葱皮洗净，然后用冷冻干燥法去除全部水分。

It was then treated with a special protein to make it brittle, before the gold was painted on.

在此之后，他们用一种特殊的蛋白质处理洋葱皮，使其变脆，再为其镀金。

By applying the electricity at different voltages at the bottom and top, the onion skin moved like a real muscle.

科学家们在洋葱皮的底部和顶部施以不同电压的电流，便观察到洋葱皮如同真肌肉那样做伸缩运动了。

At the moment, high voltages need to be used which will be a problem if they are to be implemented in robots and other automated tools.

此刻需要用到高电压，但若是把洋葱皮运用到机器人和其他自动化工具中，这将成为一大问题。

The team behind the discovery, from National Taiwan University, will now look at whether a similar technique using lower voltages is feasible.

做出这一发现的团队来自台湾国立大学(National Taiwan University)，他们现在将研究在较低的电压下，类似的技巧是否可行。

Other issues that need to be resolved are making the onion skin more durable and water-resistant.

其他需要解决的问题则是要让洋葱表皮更加持久和防水。

Artificial muscles have been created before using live muscle tissue, but they have to be kept alive - a problem that using vegetable tissue sidesteps.

科学家们在使用活肌肉组织之前便创造了人造肌肉。可是它们必须一直保持活性。使用植物组织恰好回避了这个问题。