Overgrazed grasslands tied to locust outbreaks

While residents of the United States and much of Europe think of locust plagues as biblical references, locust swarms still have devastating effects on agriculture today, especially in developing countries in Asia and Africa.

All for one, 'R-one' for all (w/ video)

Robots for everyone. That's James McLurkin's dream, and as the director of a Rice University robotics lab, he's creating an inexpensive and sophisticated robot called the "R-one" to make the dream a reality.

Kilobots bring us one step closer to a robot swarm

(PhysOrg.com) -- When you think about robots, the odds are that you think about something that is fairly large. Maybe you picture a robot arms bolted to the floor of a factory or if you are feeling particularly dramatic maybe ...

Swarm robotics: Hop, jump and stick (w/ Video)

A swarm of flying robots soars into a blazing forest fire. With insect-like precision and agility, the machines land on tree trunks and bound over rough terrain before deploying crucial sensors and tools to track the inferno ...

For this microbe, cousins not particularly welcome

(PhysOrg.com) -- A bacterial species that depends on cooperation to survive is discriminating when it comes to the company it keeps. Scientists from Indiana University Bloomington and Netherlands' Centre for Terrestrial Ecology ...

Ants vs. worms: New computer security mimics nature

In the never-ending battle to protect computer networks from intruders, security experts are deploying a new defense modeled after one of nature's hardiest creatures -- the ant.

The science of why hawks are one of nature's deadliest hunters

The sight of hundreds of thousands of bats streaming from their roost at dusk is one of nature's great spectacles. Swarms can be so dense they resemble rising smoke at a distance. But the aerial antics of the birds of prey ...

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