--- title: Artificial Muscle Development Research: Onions May Work description: New research published in the journal Applied Physics Letters suggests that onions have ideal properties for use as artificial muscles. canonical: https://time.com/3848781/onions-artificial-muscles/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-05-06T20:11:42.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T06:58:35.852Z article:section: Health og:title: How Onions May Be Used as Artificial Muscles og:description: Onions can bend, contract and elongate just like muscles og:url: https://time.com/3848781/onions-artificial-muscles/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Onions May Be Used as Artificial Muscles twitter:description: Onions can bend, contract and elongate just like muscles twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # How Onions May Be Used as Artificial Muscles > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=70d5b31a-afff-405f-87ef-a43f3ce9f3b1&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1)  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent May 6, 2015 8:11 PM UTC  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent May 6, 2015 8:11 PM UTC Imagine getting an onion transplant to replace an injured muscle. It may sound absurd, but new [research](http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/apl/106/18/10.1063/1.4917498) published in the journal A_pplied Physics Letters_ suggests that onions have ideal properties for use as artificial muscles. Researchers from the National Taiwan University in Taipei put onions through a variety of tests to measure their potential as artificial muscles. First, the researchers removed a single layer of the inside of the onion. They then freeze-dried the cells to remove water that could cause rupturing later on. Finally, they added small layers if gold to allow the onion to respond to electric current prompting it to move. In the end, they found that onions bend, contract and elongate in response to external action, just like muscles. When the researchers applied the right voltage to the onion, it would contract and grip a ball of cotton. Vegetable cells are promising for use in the body because they can perform many of the same functions when they are no longer living, unlike many other cells. “People have tried to use live muscle before. But then how to keep the muscle cells alive becomes a problem. We use vegetable cells because the cell walls provide muscle strength whether the cells are alive or not,” Wen-Pin Shih, a study researcher, told [_Smithsonian_](http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/apl/106/18/10.1063/1.4917498) magazine. Still, researchers say issues remain that may make it difficult to use onions in human beings. 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