Soft fabric robot grips objects like an elephant's trunk
The new tool may someday be used in work that needs a light touch.
- A team of engineers has developed a shape shifting tool that can grasp strangely shaped objects.
- Unlike robots based on claws, this device can wrap around objects for a better grip.
- It could be commercially available in as little as a year.
Scientists create a 'lifelike' material that has metabolism and can self-reproduce
An innovation may lead to lifelike evolving machines.
- Scientists at Cornell University devise a material with 3 key traits of life.
- The goal for the researchers is not to create life but lifelike machines.
- The researchers were able to program metabolism into the material's DNA.
Credit: Shogo Hamada / Cornell University
Check out the video of Professor Luo explaining their achievement here —
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="53d93f1578bc8308774dfbefb482e706"><iframe type="lazy-iframe" data-runner-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mbBIljwUgtM?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span>The next amazing trick we can learn from geckos
Run across water? Sure. No problem.
- Scientists analyze how geckos do something they shouldn't be able to do... walk (well, run like heck) across water.
- They can race over water nearly as fast as on land.
- Their method may look crazy... but it works. And humans could potentially do the same.
What’s so surprising
<p>There are other animals that can scoot across the surface of water. Tiny <a href="https://www.nwf.org/Educational-Resources/Wildlife-Guide/Invertebrates/Water-Striders" target="_blank"><u>water striders</u></a> leverage the way in which water tension makes molecules stick together to keep themselves from sinking. Geckos' larger cousins, <u><a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/reptiles/g/green-basilisk-lizard/" target="_blank">basilisk lizards</a>,</u> sort of do it, too, keeping themselves at least partially above the water line by generating air pockets around their feet to step on, reducing drag as they move through water. But there's a balance to be struck: Making such air pockets requires a lot of energy, and an animal therefore needs to be large enough to produce it. But geckos aren't the right size for this feat. Biophysicist Jasmine Nirody tells <a href="https://www.sciencenews.org/article/physics-how-geckos-almost-walk-water?tgt=nr" target="_blank">Science News</a>, "Geckos fall smack-dab in the middle. They shouldn't really be able to do this at all." After looking into this mystery, she can now explain how they're getting away with it, as she does in a study just published in <a href="https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(18)31469-6" target="_blank">Current Biology</a>.</p><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODk4MjA3My9vcmlnaW4uZ2lmIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxNjg1MTU3Mn0.BLfCtXGTDLeutSZ-kE35RccjPL7_X7xvYKCqPcCfWk0/img.gif?width=980" id="b5fc4" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="db33d27b3c564e4c61a26fd5c1671aad" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />(Current Biology)
The gecko solution
<p>Nirody and her colleague Ardian Jusufi filmed eight flat-tailed house geckos traversing water tanks, mading videos of them that could be slowed down to see just exactly what's going on.</p><p>The geckos, it turns out, are performing a kind of sloppy swimmers' front crawl, slapping the water with all four feet while undulating their tails side to side. The slapping creates air pockets that allow about 70% of their bodies to remain up and out of the water, sparing them from having to push their entire bodies through resisting water. There's apparently an element of surface tension assisting them in this, too, since when Nirodi added dish soap to their water, the geckos slowed down appreciably. (Soap <u><a href="https://www.exploratorium.edu/ronh/bubbles/soap.html" target="_blank">lowers surface tension</a>.)</u></p><p>The geckos' tail movement propels the remaining 30% of their bodies forward in the water. Their <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultrahydrophobicity" target="_blank"><u>superhydrophobic</u></a> skin makes it even easier by reducing drag.</p><p>Chaotic-looking as it looks, the geckos' system is remarkably effective at letting the lizards travel nearly a meter per second — that's about 10.5 body lengths per second. It's just about as fast as they can run on land.</p><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODk4MjA4My9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzMTk2ODE1Nn0.HJQX5d_NXqyWEYr8Ql021s6G6b8SM2eTXqmBQ1UMDog/img.jpg?width=980" id="508ec" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="29f3e9792d8334983693216393dbb4a5" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />(Nirody, et al)
Score one more for biomimicry
<p>Animals have developed some surprising adaptations to their environments that would be considered genius had they been developed consciously. <a href="https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/biomimicry-examples/" target="_blank"><u>Biomimicry</u></a> is one of the more exciting — and more understandable for us lay people — areas of scientific investigation. It's led to, for example, Velcro from plant burs, octopus-inspired <a href="https://bigthink.com/design-for-good/biomimicry-in-action" target="_self"><u>prosthetics</u></a>, the Kingfisher-shaped bullet train, wind turbines based on humpback whales' tubercle fins, and many more.</p><p>Geckos are not only engagingly quirky — right, GEICO? — but also full of cool traits that keep them skittering along the leading edge of science.</p><span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="320001b802f7cc29c5804f7adbf8fb71"><iframe type="lazy-iframe" data-runner-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wbKVZIhloaM?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span>5 ingenious inventions to help animals survive man-made eco harm
Jonathon Keats proposes a "Reciprocal Biomimicry Initiative" to help return the favor after taking so many great ideas from them.
Scientists have been stealing ideas from animals for years. The Shinkansen Bullet Train in Japan for example, was super-fast — 200 mph. But it was also super-noisy until chief engineer and bird-watcher Eiji Nakatsu got the idea that the beak that allows kingfishers to splash-lessly dive into water could also help a train slice more easily through air. One industrial “nose job" later, the bullet train is far quieter and goes 10% faster on 15% less fuel.
