snails
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Snail venom provides a new way to treat chronic pain
The Conus regius' venom is bad news for its prey, and it's been proven harmful to humans as well. For instance, a 2009 clinical case describes a diver who had trouble moving his arm for 12 hours after an attack. However, scientists from the University of Utah see hope in the ocean dweller's powerful venom. In fact, research suggests it could be used to develop a new treatment for chronic pain.
Surprisingly efficient snail brains could help make robots smarter
How snails think about eating could inform future robot decision-making designs. University of Sussex researchers have discovered that the creatures use just two brain cells for complex decisions: one cell told the snail if it was hungry, while another told it if food was near. Scientists attached electrodes to the snails' brains to measure activity -- which hopefully looked adorable. The takeaway is that it could help design efficient robot brains using the least possible number of components yet still capable of performing complex tasks. Lead researcher Professor George Kemenes added that it: "also shows how this system helps to manage how much energy they use once they have made a decision."
Snail turned into living battery, should have taken the blue pill
You know how those mad scientists at DARPA are obsessed with generating power from insects? A team from Clarkson University, New York and Ben-Gurion University, Israel has gone one better by turning a Snail into a cybernetic power generator. A pair of Buckypaper electrodes were charged by the electro-chemical reactions in the slow-moving invertebrates "hemolymph," its equivalent to blood. Its hoped the Snails will provide a sustainable way to power listening devices for the Department of Homeland Security, so if you suddenly find your crawlspace full of gastropods, be careful what you say. [Image credit: American Chemical Society]
Japanese TORo II gallops ahead at a mechanical snail's pace (video)
Snails with benefits? Our salt shaker might disagree. But some enterprising engineers over at Japan's Chuo University managed to turn this garden-variety pest into fodder for mechatronic inspiration. Based on the gastropod's preferred method of 'galloping' -- wherein waves of foot-to-head muscle contractions propel it forward -- researchers at the Mechatronics Lab created TORo II, an omnidirectional robot that could make its way to a hospital near you. Why's that? Well, the bot's large gripped surface area makes it ideal for narrow, slippery environments -- so it won't budge if knocked into (though you might wind up on the emergency room floor). Although the unique movement technique has been used to create other mecha-mollusks in the past, the team behind this project made sure to create some of their own ceiling and wall-climbing critters -- suction definitely included. We admit, we kind of feel guilty about the sodium chloride transgressions of our youth. And now that we know snails can be useful, it's only a matter of time before the bedbug gets repurposed. Full omnidirectional video awesomeness after the break.
