THE STRONGEST ROBOTS WILL BE MADE FROM...ONIONS.

Here’s the thing about today’s robots: They’re wimps. Even the most powerful can lift only half their weight. Worse, they’re inflexible and their movements are herky-jerky. But that wouldn’t be the case if we could outfit them with lightweight, smooth-moving, and super-strong artificial muscles. In fact, a machine equipped with robo-biceps could lift 80 times its own weight! The problem is, artificial muscles are expensive. For years, scientists have been trying to make them with costly polymers. But in May 2015, researchers at the National Taiwan University discovered a material so cheap, it literally made them tear up: onions. When they coated onion cells with gold and zapped them with electricity, the cells, like human muscles, bent and contracted. Is it too soon to imagine this sort of technology someday powering robots that will carry us piggyback to work while reading us the news and serving us milkshakes?