Arachnophobia and Necrophobia warning:
https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/07/inflating-spider-corpse-creates-robotic-claw-game-of-nightmares/
Shortly after the Preston Innovation Lab was set up at Rice University, graduate student Faye Yap was rearranging a few things when she noticed a dead curled up spider in the hallway. Curious about why spiders curl up when they die, she did a quick search to find the answer. And that answer—essentially, internal hydraulics—led to delightfully morbid inspiration: Why not use the bodies of dead spiders as tiny air-powered grippers for picking up and maneuvering tiny electronic parts?
Yap and her colleagues—including adviser Daniel Preston—did just that. They transformed a dead wolf spider into a gripping tool with just a single assembly step—essentially launching a novel new research area they have cheekily dubbed "necrobotics." They outlined the process in detail in a new paper published in the journal Advanced Science. The authors suggest the gripper could be ideal for delicate "pick-and-place" repetitive tasks and could possibly be used one day in the assembly of microelectronics.
https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.202201174
Also At:
Dead spiders reanimated as creepy 'necrobots'
(Score: -1, Spam) by Fuck You Niggers 13 on Sunday July 31 2022, @01:35AM (1 child)
We used to have a philosopher until janrinok lynched him to protect Runaway. Sad that aristarchus is no longer a Soylentil because janrinok lynched him.
(Score: -1, Spam) by Fuck You Niggers 14 on Sunday July 31 2022, @01:49AM
Correct. When aristarchus died as a Soylentil after janrinok lynched him, Soylent News also died. A Soylentil was killed to protect a racist traitor. And now I shall address the traitor.
Runaway, are you involved in laundering of international funds to support fascism, but locally and on the international scale? One of the principles of the foundering Republicans. SN does have a core contingent of traitors hell bent on overthrowing democracy because they believe baseless lies from a blatant lying criminal. And not just your ordinary criminal, this one is like the bingo hall master of crime. Republicans like you became fascists and from all appearances seem completely unaware of the change.
And, we are calling it treason, so it did not prosper, because stupid can never win, because if it did, it wouldn't know that it had.
Brits like janrinok committed treason, too! SoylentNews was the censorship of a Soylentil, one who has been with us from the beginning, a Buck Feta of the old Skool, our dear aristarchus. After this, there is only death, darkness, janrinok, and FatAssPhil. Martyb was not able to save us. It is all Runaway Shit, from now on. What the traitors need is a FatPhil, and a janrinok, to be able to identify the ACs posting while they are supposed to be working. You know who they are!
SoylentNews is dead, RIP! Adieu, mon Freres!
(Score: 3, Funny) by The Vocal Minority on Sunday July 31 2022, @03:28AM (3 children)
Very cool! I can't imagine overly practical however given how quickly spider corpses dry up and disintegrate (at least around here). Maybe a spider breeding colony would be required to operate such a device - kill a spider ever now and again to refresh your gripper. Added bonus would be all of the hilarity that would ensue when the spiders inevitably escaped from captivity.
(Score: 2) by coolgopher on Sunday July 31 2022, @05:38AM
Well you know how that goes with wolf spiderlings [youtube.com]... (arachnophobes advised not to follow link)
(Score: 3, Funny) by crafoo on Sunday July 31 2022, @08:53AM
I imagine post-mortem processing techniques could be used to extend it's "useful life". LMAO. Or attach a few capillary tubes to preserve the desiccated corpse. Why stop with spiders? What an absolutely rich and vibrant area for engineering advancement.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Immerman on Sunday July 31 2022, @03:09PM
It might serve as inspiration for artificial graspers though - I don't think I've previously heard of any such multi-digit graspers that involve only single pneumatic actuator, and I imagine a quality rubber-and-plastic 3D printer could make some very precise one-piece graspers based on the idea in a wide range of sizes and complexities.