SHAFAQNA – Researchers discover a new way to make artificial muscles from the skin of onions. The new research was published in the journal Applied Physics Letters, a publication of the American Institute of Physics (AIP). These new muscles are different to the existing artificial muscles because after being covered with layers of gold they can either expand or contract to bend in different directions, depending on the driving voltage applied. Before this discovery, artificial muscles could bend or contract but not at the same time.