Scientists Reanimate Dead Spiders. A group of engineers at Rice University were working on a research project to transform dead spiders into robotic gripping claws.
About Nature Creation
“Why bother designing your own robots when you can just reuse what nature created?” That was the question they were asking themselves while working on this project. This thought process worked since they transformed dead spiders into robotic gripping claws. The engineers have dubbed their new area of research “necrobiotic” saying it could create cheap, effective, and biodegradable alternatives to current robotic systems.
About Humans and Spiders
Scientists have said that “while humans move their limbs using pairs of antagonistic muscles, like biceps and triceps, spiders’ legs contain only a single flexor muscle that draws the leg inward.” When people kill them they bend in a weird way or just curl up. This is because they don’t have any fluid which its called prosoma. This fluid pushes their legs up and lets them walk.
When a spider is deceased it’s a great time to architecture a small scale that is naturally derived grippers. Someone from Rice’s George R. Brown School, an engineer named Daniel Preston, commented on how spiders are capable of lifting objects weighing 130 percent of their body. This isn’t a lot but can do this 1,000 times open and close cycles before their joint degrades.
While scientists were experimenting on the spiders they had to be notified prior to delivery. This had to happen due to one of the employees in their front office is scared of spiders. So they would give them a heads up so that person would know when the package would arrive.
About the Scientists Project’s
Scientists also said this project was done to “draw inspiration for their designs from the natural world.” This is something I agree on. There is so much in nature that might be little but could help create something to decrease garbage and air pollution. I think that one of the best things to ever said was “Why copy when you can steal? Especially when Mother Nature has already done the hard work of developing effective mechanisms through millions of years of evolution.” This is so true instead of using what mother nature gave us we are destroying it. We’re not using it as an advantage for useful stuff. We are just creating a mess in this world. I feel we are not using that thing mother nature gave us to provide as an advantage.
Written by Rosie Nieto
Source:
The Verge: Scientists reanimate dead spiders as robot gripping claws
Feauture3 and top image courtesy of tangi bertin’f’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
Inset Image Courtesy of slgckgc’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
