© 1999 Robert A. Freitas Jr. All Rights Reserved.

Robert A. Freitas Jr., Nanomedicine, Volume I: Basic Capabilities, Landes Bioscience, Georgetown, TX, 1999

5.4.3 Bumper Mechanics

Methods of inflation and deflation of metamorphic volumes have been described in Section 5.3.3. Interbumper connection forces may be 10⁷-10⁹ N/m², easily exceeding potentially disruptive forces typically encountered inside the human body. Consistent with available power resources and likely operating environments, metamorphic bumpers may be driven at frequencies of 10-1000 Hz at full-range amplitude, or faster in cases of limited-range amplitude oscillations. This response rate matches or exceeds the speeds of all important mechanical tissue movements found in the human body including respiration (0.1-1 Hz), pulse (1-2 Hz), muscle contractions during violent exercise (1-10 Hz) or tetanic contractions (15-60 Hz), and even nerve cell discharge events (5-100 Hz). The fastest known animal muscle speeds⁷³⁹ are found in the ~90 Hz rattle-shaker of the western diamondback rattlesnake;¹²⁴⁵ the ~90 Hz hummingbird wingbeat; the ~200 Hz toadfish swim bladder;¹²⁴⁵ the synchronous muscle contractions of the katydid, Neoconocephalus robustus, at 212 Hz,³¹⁶¹ and the cicada, Chlorocysta viridis, at 224 Hz;³¹⁶² and finally the record 1046-2200 Hz wingbeat of the tiny midge Forcipomyia.^739,2033

Last updated on 18 February 2003