Using robots to test evolutionary hypothesis. This is the main purpose of John Long's research. In his laboratory, he and his colleagues build robots with essential bio-realistic animal features, like the ability to behave autonomously. We interviewed him before his lecture at the Festival della Scienza in Genoa.
Evolving robots
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Carnivorous plants can be a source of inspiration for new materials
Drosera capensis. Wikimedia.
Carnivorous plants can be a source of inspiration for new materials with specific mechanical properties, according to researchers from the Centre for Complexity and Biosystems (CC&B) of the University of Milan. In a paper recently published on PNAS– and selected for the journal’s cover –they analysed the mechanics by which one of these plants, Drosera capensis, folds its leaves around insects trapped on their sticky surface in order to digest them.