By applying the electricity at different voltages to gold-painted onion skin, the material moved like a real muscle.

给镀金的洋葱表皮施加不同电压的电流，这种材料便会如同真实的肌肉那样收缩。

Scientists say that artificial muscles for robots can be made by covering onions in gold.

科学家们认为镀金的洋葱(皮)能成为机器人的人造肌肉。

The humble¹ vegetable's skin can stretch and flex² like real tissue which previous artificial muscles have been unable to emulate³.

这种普通蔬菜的表皮能像真的肌肉组织那样伸展和收缩，而之前的那些人造肌肉都没能模仿出这一特性。

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.

科学家们将洋葱表皮两面镀金，然后用特殊设备向它施加电流，便能让它延展、收缩。

In the tests, scientists took a single layer of skin and washed it, before freeze drying it to remove all water.

在测试中，科学家们取下单层洋葱皮洗净，然后用冷冻干燥法去除全部水分。

It was then treated with a special protein to make it brittle⁴, before the gold was painted on.

在此之后，他们用一种特殊的蛋白质处理洋葱皮，使其变脆，再为其镀金。

By applying the electricity at different voltages at the bottom and top, the onion skin moved like a real muscle.

科学家们在洋葱皮的底部和顶部施以不同电压的电流，便观察到洋葱皮如同真肌肉那样做伸缩运动了。

At the moment, high voltages need to be used which will be a problem if they are to be implemented⁵ in robots and other automated⁶ tools.

此刻需要用到高电压，但若是把洋葱皮运用到机器人和其他自动化工具中，这将成为一大问题。

The team behind the discovery, from National Taiwan University, will now look at whether a similar technique using lower voltages is feasible.

做出这一发现的团队来自台湾国立大学(National Taiwan University)，他们现在将研究在较低的电压下，类似的技巧是否可行。

Other issues that need to be resolved are making the onion skin more durable⁷ and water-resistant.

其他需要解决的问题则是要让洋葱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.

科学家们在使用活肌肉组织之前便创造了人造肌肉。可是它们必须一直保持活性。使用植物组织恰好回避了这个问题。