魔性新配方：鍍金洋蔥做機器人仿真皮膚
By applying the electricity at different voltages to gold-painted onion skin, the material moved like a real muscle.
給鍍金的洋蔥表皮施加不同電壓的電流，這種材料便會如同真實的肌肉那樣收縮。
Scientists say that artificial muscles for robots can be made by covering onions in gold.
科學家們認爲鍍金的洋蔥(皮)能成爲機器人的人造肌肉。
The humble vegetable's skin can stretch and flex like real tissue which previous artificial muscles have been unable to emulate.
這種普通蔬菜的表皮能像真的肌肉組織那樣伸展和收縮，而之前的那些人造肌肉都沒能模仿出這一特性。
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.
科學家們將洋蔥表皮兩面鍍金，然後用特殊設備向它施加電流，便能讓它延展、收縮。
In the tests, scientists took a single layer of skin and washed it, before freeze drying it to remove all water.
在測試中，科學家們取下單層洋蔥皮洗淨，然後用冷凍乾燥法去除全部水分。
It was then treated with a special protein to make it brittle, before the gold was painted on.
在此之後，他們用一種特殊的蛋白質處理洋蔥皮，使其變脆，再爲其鍍金。
By applying the electricity at different voltages at the bottom and top, the onion skin moved like a real muscle.
科學家們在洋蔥皮的底部和頂部施以不同電壓的電流，便觀察到洋蔥皮如同真肌肉那樣做伸縮運動了。
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.
此刻需要用到高電壓，但若是把洋蔥皮運用到機器人和其他自動化工具中，這將成爲一大問題。
The team behind the discovery, from National Taiwan University, will now look at whether a similar technique using lower voltages is feasible.
做出這一發現的團隊來自臺灣國立大學（National Taiwan University），他們現在將研究在較低的電壓下，類似的技巧是否可行。
Other issues that need to be resolved are making the onion skin more durable and water-resistant.
其他需要解決的問題則是要讓洋蔥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.
科學家們在使用活肌肉組織之前便創造了人造肌肉。可是它們必須一直保持活性。使用植物組織恰好迴避了這個問題。
