Creepy or adorable? Researchers at Harvard University have demonstrated the first autonomous, untethered, entirely soft robot: the octobot.
Instead of being controlled by electronics, the robot’s logic board is powered by chemical reactions and fluid passing along tiny channels. Scientist have struggled to create completely soft robots because rigid components like circuit boards, power sources and electronic controls are difficult to replace.
Learn more about the octobot and soft robotics here and see the full study published in Nature here.
Videos Credit: Harvard SEAS/Image Credit Lori Sanders
A special eye protein is helping birds to “see” Earth’s magnetic field! If that’s not cool, I don’t know what is.
The ability to see Earth’s magnetic field, known as magnetoreception, relies on the presence of specifically the blue wavelength of light. The complex process involves “radical” intermediate molecules which are sensitive to Earth’s magnetic field. The Earth’s magnetic field, as it relates to the direction the bird is facing, could alter the intermediate radical molecules differently, giving the bird a sense for where it is facing in relation to the Earth’s magnetic field.
While the exact way birds visualize Earth’s magnetic field is part of further investigation, scientists believe the Cry4 protein acts as sort of a filter over the bird’s vision. This filter would allow birds to see a sort of compass of the Earth and direct their migratory flights accordingly.
This is all true. This all happened in Canada, and its very likely it will happen in the USA under Trump and be worse than Harper’s crackdown on Science ever was.
I took a break from bio study today, by drawing a eukaryotic cell haha ( *’ω’* ). Drawing + colouring always makes me feel really relaxed / de-stressed !!
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