Thursday, June 25, 2009

Sharks dying and robots feeding

It has not been a good week for sharks. First great white sharks are revealed to be serial killers, now a study shows that one-third of open ocean sharks are endangered. The gorgeous photos of sharks just serve to high-light what a loss it would be if they went extinct.

Less depressing, though hair-raising, are these robots that hunt and feed. One of the robots, created by the James Auger and Jimmy Loizeau designer team, is disguised as a table. Crumbs placed on the table lures unsuspecting mice to crawl up on the table and when the table-bot senses it's prey, it opens a trapdoor and the mouse fall in. The robot can digest the mouse with a microbial fuel cell, giving it energy to hunt more mice. 

(Note: none of the robots can eat human beings.) 

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