Without functioning muscles, we wouldn’t be able to do a whole lot. Even our most basic needs, eating and breathing, depend on our muscles. Yet on the molecular level, muscles are quite simple. They’re composed of two different types of filaments that are tightly bound together. Muscle movement occurs when these filaments slide over one another in a concerted contraction.

Recently, scientists have designed molecular muscles that are even more advanced than the linear biological muscles, exhibiting a similar ability to contract and stretch but to do so in both two and three dimensions. These systems have a complex structure similar to a daisy chain.

A molecular daisy chain

Daisy chains are assembled by repeatedly threading the stem of one flower through a loop that is created at the end of the stem of the preceding flower. The flower heads themselves act as a structural barrier, or stopper, preventing the flower from slipping through the loop.