Sure they are the same thing, but if you search for nitinol wire, its not obvious that you can use electricity through it and use it as an actuator. Muscle write brings up some videos and project pages. I recently picked up a couple spools from robotshop.com for not too much. "j. eric townsend" <jet@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: aka nitinol wire. my old studio mate Greg makes robots out of paper and nitinol wire: <http://www.gregsaul.co.uk/lookAt/paperRobots/>; On 3/3/11 13:59, Matt Mets wrote: > Muscle wire! > > Logan Stack <logan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > On 3 Mar 2011, at 11:41 , jeff kramer wrote: > An important > differentiation question: mussel or muscle? muscle I don't know how > to spell 'exercise' either... does that make me a geek? Ed: I > started my quest looking at more mechanical means like you > suggested... But I got frustrated. The spine bends in a nice arc in > any direction. Maybe I could print vertebrae on a MakerBot and pull > on a string to 'contract the muscle' in the direction of the bend? > But that seems pretty fragile compared to a material that > contracts/bends under voltage, and I swear I've seen this material > used somewhere. I just can't remember where, and can't search for it > because I don't remember what it's called :-( -- J. Eric Townsend design: www.allartburns.org; hacking: www.flatline.net; HF: KG6ZVQ PGP: 0xD0D8C2E8 AC9B 0A23 C61A 1B4A 27C5 F799 A681 3C11 D0D8 C2E8