jellyfish
Latest
Scientists make jellyfish swim faster to prepare for deep-sea exploration
Scientists at Caltech and Stanford University want to turn jellyfish into deep-sea explorers that could be directed around the ocean, recording info as they travel. In a paper published in the journal Science Advances, the team explains how they've developed a tiny, microelectronic prosthetic that can be attached to jellyfish, causing them to swim faster and more efficiently.
Harvard's noodly robot fingers are great at grabbing jellyfish
Robots can be a bit heavy-handed. Their forceful grip might not be a problem when they're moving boxes in a warehouse, but they can damage fragile marine creatures like jellyfish. Researchers may have a solution. They've created a robotic hand with a squishy grabber and a gentle grip that uses "fettuccini-like silicone fingers" to catch and release fragile, gelatinous jellyfish.
Jellyfish-inspired e-skin glows when it's in 'pain'
Artificial skin stands to have a variety uses, with potential applications in everything from robots to prosthetics. And in recent years, researchers have been able to instill sensory perception, like touch and pressure, into artificial skin. However, while those sorts of senses will be incredibly important in engineered skin, they've so far been rather limited. For example, while current versions can be quite sensitive to light touch, they don't fare so well with high pressures that could cause damage. So researchers at the Huazhong University of Science and Technology in China set out to fix that problem and they drew their inspiration from jellyfish.
ICYMI: Robot tattoo artist and healing coral reefs
try{document.getElementById("aol-cms-player-1").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: Scientists were able to program soft materials to shift their shape on digital command, which is only a precursor to our biggest tech news of this episode: That an industrial robot normally used to put together cars was repurposed to delicately give tattoos to human beings. Considering the robotic arm is large and heavy enough to lift car doors easily, we'd like to invite you all to give this tattoo artist a try first, please.
Scientists use synthetic skin to test box jelly sting remedies
Box Jellyfish kill more people worldwide each year than sharks. That's why a team of researchers from the University of Hawaii at Mānoa are working to develop an effective first aid treatment for the jelly's deadly toxins -- and they're trying just about everything. From the popular myth of urinating on stings to vinegar/hot water immersions and commercial cures like StingNoMore, no remedy out of bounds. But how do you test these treatments without trying them on humans? You make your own synthetic skin, obviously.
Jellyfish Aquarium can make it easy to care for pet jellies
Jellyfish are notoriously hard to care for, and even a slight change in temperature can kill them quickly. A startup called Jellyfish Art swears its cylinder tanks can help you keep teensy moon jellies alive for as long as possible, though, which means the animals could live for years instead of six-or-so months like in the wild. According to the cylinder's Kickstarter campaign, it comes with everything you need, including filters and activated charcoal -- all you need to do is add water. It's even shipped with colorful LED lights to make the display look as interesting as professional tanks found in marine parks.
Studying jellyfish is the key to better underwater crafts
Jellyfish and lamprey have been swimming in the same hypnotic way for millions of years. It has taken a Stanford-lead team of scientists to figure out how they do this so efficiently and the results show our assumptions have been way off this whole time. It turns out these ancient animals don't push against the water behind them to propel forwards but instead suck water towards themselves to maximize distance and exert as little energy as possible. Pockets of low pressure water form in the bends of the animal's body and when water rushes to these areas; it sucks them forward as a result.
ICYMI: Latest grenade launcher, modular smart watch and more
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-332561{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-332561, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-332561{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-332561").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: The U.S. Army is more interested than ever in blowing things up with precision, and that's why it's beginning acceptance testing on a smart grenade launcher that can detonate explosives mid-air. The rest of us can get our geek on with the Kickstarter for Blocks modular watch, which has different modules for all kinds of things: Advanced fitness tracking, mobile payments or GPS. And a Kickstarter to house jellyfish in the fanciest way possible is up for a hefty $1,500.
Oceanographers invent device that tracks even the tiniest jellyfish
With barely two percent of the seafloor explored, we know a whole lot less than we'd like to about the Earth's oceans and its myriad of residents. Among the more numerous but less studied oceanic animals are soft-bodied like squid, octopi and jellyfish. However thanks to a new tracking tag technology developed at the Woods Hole Oceanic Institute, marine biologists will be able to observe these delicate denizens of the deep as they never have before.
Scientists implant teeny, tiny lasers into human cells
A few years back, a pair of researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital made human cells glow by impregnating them with a molecule that's normally found in jellyfish called green fluorescent protein (GFP) and packing them into a resonant cavity that amplified the amount of light each cell produced. Now, according to a new study recently published in the journal Nano Letters, a team of scientists from the University of St Andrews have developed a means of making individual glowing cells also act as their own resonant cavities.
Research spat turns a GM lamb with jellyfish DNA into lunch
There's a scandale playing out at a genetic research facility that caused a valuable lab sheep to end up as someone's gigot d'agneau dinner. France's National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) has been breeding sheep that are genetically modified with a florescent jellyfish gene to aid heart researchers. Unfortunately, a lamb called "Ruby" ended up at the slaughterhouse and on someone's assiette, possibly with a different, more minty jelly. Worse yet, it appears that the incident happened not by accident, but because of some kind of professional feud that escalated way out of control.
ICYMI: Ramen by drone, creepy robot gloves and the week in sum
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-45672{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-45672, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-45672{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-45672").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: A Caltech research team is studying a species of jellyfish to see if its ability to rearrange limbs when injured could be used by the robots of the future; a Harvard glove prototype could restore gripping abilities in people with disabilities, but man is it the creepiest, alien-looking glove we've ever seen. We're also including a great video of a ramen-making machine that has optional drone delivery; at which point we call bulls**t.
Rearranging jellyfish limbs may lead to self-healing robots
Normally when a jellyfish loses a limb, say to the jaws of a hungry sea turtle, it simply regenerates the lost appendage, no big deal. However, a Caltech research team has been studying a certain jellyfish species that doesn't regrow its limbs but rather rearranges the remaining ones to maintain symmetry. They think that this body-modifying trick could one day help robots repair themselves after similar injuries.
We flew over the Nevada desert with Avegant's 'Jellyfish' video glasses
Avegant's video headsets are like buses. You wait all year for one, and then two suddenly turn up at once. That thing you see above might look a million miles away from the headphone-inspired Glyph, but it is in fact a very close relative. Codenamed "Jellyfish" the video headset/wearable display has a wider field of view than the Glyph (65 degrees compared to 45), which makes it better for things like simulators, VR and (as seen here) point-of-view drone flying. The Jellyfish is something of a side project right now; Avegant's priority remains the Glyph. But, the company told us that devices with a wider field of view are something on its developmental roadmap; just don't expect to see a consumer-ready product anytime soon.
Giant robot jellyfish reporting for recon duty, sir (video)
As if there weren't enough real jellyfish around to trigger our thalassophobia, researchers at Virginia Tech have created Cryo -- an eight-armed autonomous robot that mimics jelly movement with the help of a flexible silicone hat. The man-sized jellybot altogether dwarfs previous efforts, hence the upgrade from small tank to swimming pool for mock field tests. And unlike the passively propelled bots we've seen recently, Cryo runs on batteries, with the researchers hoping to better replicate the energy-efficient nature of jelly movement to eventually increase Cryo's charge cycle to months instead of hours. That's also the reason these robotic jellyfish are getting bigger -- because the larger they are, the further they can go. Potential uses include ocean monitoring and perhaps clearing oil spills, but the US Navy, which is funding the work, sees an opportunity to recruit jellies for underwater surveillance -- a job the researchers say is suited to their natural-looking disguise. But, before the tables are turned, you can spy on Cryo for yourself in the video below.
Samsung Galaxy S 4 preview: a flagship with some familiar roots
You say you want a revolution? Too bad, because this Galaxy smartphone update is just that... an update. Samsung's newly unveiled Galaxy S 4 is an incremental step up, an evolution less "inspired by nature" and more by last year's GS III. Don't believe us? Just take a look at the two handsets side by side to see the overtly obvious heritage. Samsung's staying the course with the overall design language, though it's expanded the screen size to five inches -- now powered by a Full HD Super AMOLED display with 441 ppi (and yes, it's still PenTile). On the inside, it has a processor setup that we're told will be either an Exynos 5 or Snapdragon depending on the region, along with 2GB of RAM, 16, 32 or 64GB of internal storage, a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera and a 2,600mAh battery. Starting to see the bigger picture here? Samsung had a good thing on its hands with the GS III and it's not willing to compromise much of the tried-and-true with the GS 4. It will launch globally in Q2, with a stateside debut on T-Mobile, AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, US Cellular and Cricket. Until then, join us past the break for our detailed first impressions. %Gallery-182135% %Gallery-182392% Check out our event hub for all the action from Samsung's Galaxy S 4 event.
Jellyfish-mimicking device could snatch cancer cells right out of the bloodstream
If you think the picture above looks like droplets of blood being snared in a sticky tentacle, then you have a scarily active -- but in this case accurate -- imagination. It's actually a microfluidic chip that's been coated with long strands of DNA, which dangle down into the bloodstream and bind to any cancerous proteins floating past -- directly imitating the way a jellyfish scoops up grub in the ocean. If required, the chip can release these cells unharmed for later inspection. According to the chip's designers at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital, the catch-and-release mechanism can be put to both diagnostic and therapeutic use in the fight against Big C, and can also be used to isolate good things, like fetal cells. The next step will be to test the device on humans -- at which point we may owe an even greater debt of gratitude to our gelatinous friends. [Image credit: Rohit Karnik and Suman Bose]
Fake jellyfish made from rat cells have a place in our hearts (video)
There's a whole sea of jellyfish out there ready to sting indiscriminately. So, why do we keep trying to make them? Scientists from Harvard and Caltech have a pretty good reason for creating fake jellies -- they hope to mend broken hearts by adapting their 'pumping' style of movement. Much like our own vital organ, the creatures are a mass of muscle adept at shifting fluid, meaning the research has several medical applications, such as bioengineered pacemakers for busted tickers. In creating the Medusoids, the team used a silicon scaffold coated in functional rat cardiac tissue, copying the muscle layout of a real jellyfish as best they could. When immersed in salt water and treated to bursts of current, the cells contract and cause the silicon sheet to move in a way eerily similar to the real thing. Next step for the team? An autonomous version that can move and potentially feed without their influence, of course. And, after seeing the little swimmers in action, we've certainly got palpitations. See what we mean after the break.
Robot jellyfish feeds on its surroundings, looks for a job in underwater surveillance
We've seen plenty of robots inspired by nature, but this robot jellyfish developed by researchers from University of Texas at Dallas and Virginia Tech goes one big step beyond mimicking a jellyfish's movements. It's powered by hydrogen, which means that it could potentially stay underwater for prolonged periods of time and constantly refuel itself from the water around it. That, the researchers say, could make it ideal for underwater surveillance or search and rescue operations, but they still have a fair bit of work to do before that happens -- their next step is to increase its maneuverability. Head on past the break to check it out in its current state.
Scientists produce laser light from human kidney cells, we get in touch with our inner Cyclops
Scientists have just created living laser light out of a human cell and some jellyfish protein, but it's not quite as terrifying as it sounds. Developed by Malte Gather and Seok Hyun Yun at Massachusetts General Hospital, the new technique revolves around something known as green fluorescent protein (GFP) -- a naturally glowing molecule found in jellyfish that can be used to illuminate living material. After genetically engineering a human kidney cell to express this protein, Gather and Yun wedged it between two mirrors in an inch-long cylinder, filled with a GFP solution. Then, they infused the system with blue light, until the cell began to emit its own pulses of bright green laser light. Researchers also noticed that the cell could regenerate any destroyed fluorescent proteins, potentially paving the way for scientists to conduct light-based therapy and medical imaging without an external laser source. Hit the source link for more information, though you'll need a subscription to Nature Photonics to access the full article.
