‘Swarm of one’ robot is a single machine made up of independent modules

‘Loopy’ is a multicellular robot inspired by biology and designed to react to its environment without instructions on how to do so.

Trevor Smith, PhD Candidate in Mechanical Engineering, West Virginia University • conversation
Feb. 26, 2024 • ~5 min

Our robot harvests cotton by reaching out and plucking it, like a lizard’s tongue snatching flies

Cotton is one of the world’s largest crops and is harvested with large, heavy machines. Robotic harvesting could yield higher-quality cotton with less damage to plants and soil.

Hussein Gharakhani, Assistant Professor of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, Mississippi State University • conversation
Feb. 13, 2024 • ~8 min

Electric eels inspired the first battery two centuries ago and now point a way to future battery technologies

One species of eel can discharge 860 volts of electricity – that’s 200-fold higher than the top voltage of a single lithium-ion battery.

Timothy J. Jorgensen, Director of the Health Physics and Radiation Protection Graduate Program and Professor of Radiation Medicine, Georgetown University • conversation
May 9, 2022 • ~9 min

Concrete fuels climate change – but there's a nature-friendly way to defend coasts from rising seas

New breakwater designs and more sustainable materials can cut the carbon cost of coastal defences by 40%.

Ali Abbas, Associate Professor of Structural Engineering, University of East London • conversation
March 22, 2022 • ~7 min

Neuronlike circuits bring brainlike computers a step closer

Artificial brains are far in the future, but computer chips that work like brains could keep computers advancing when today's silicon transistor chips reach their limit.

R. Stanley Williams, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Texas A&M University • conversation
Oct. 5, 2020 • ~5 min

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