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from the keep-going-and-going-and-going dept.
Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
Anyone who's tried to kill a cockroach knows that the ancient pests have some world-class evasive maneuvers. Or at least they appear to.
The agility of cockroaches may owe less to lightning-fast reflexes and fancy footwork than their tough, shock-absorbent bodies. According to a new study, American cockroaches can run full-speed into walls and other obstacles because their exoskeletons allow them to recover quickly with hardly any loss in momentum.
"Their bodies are doing the computing, not their brains or complex sensors," said Kaushik Jayaram, a biologist at Harvard University and lead author of the study, which was published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface.
The findings -which were further validated by a tiny, cockroach-sized robot - could influence the design of the next generation of robots that run, jump and fly.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 15 2018, @09:11AM (1 child)
So what you are saying, if I read it right, is that when the boffins design the mini-robots to attack us in our own domiciles, all we need to fight back is a glass jar, cardboard, and some washing-up fluid? Was not this already covered in "The Fifth Element", but all we need is a shoe, and a Fifth Element?
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday February 15 2018, @03:46PM
Much simpler and less likely to fail. Make sure to clean up the mess afterward with a clorox wipe or something, too.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"