Many animals appear to have an impressive ability to follow the wind to find food, avoid predators, and connect with potential mates. Until now, however, no study had examined how land mammals know the direction of the wind. ...
Plants & Animals
Aug 24, 2016
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10
Researchers have developed artificial whiskers that allow robots to "see" the surroundings in dark and murky places by analysing the way the whiskers respond to water and air flow.
Engineering
Apr 18, 2016
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54
Harbor seals have an amazingly fine-tuned sense for detecting prey, as marine biologists have noted for years. Even when blindfolded, trained seals are able to chase the precise path of an object that swam by 30 seconds earlier. ...
Engineering
Oct 15, 2015
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48
Many mammals, including seals and rats, rely on their whiskers to sense their way through dark environments. Inspired by these animals, scientists working at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Illinois' Advanced ...
Engineering
Aug 4, 2015
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40
The way rats use their whiskers is more similar to how humans use their hands and fingers than previously thought, new research from the University of Sheffield has found.
Plants & Animals
Jul 7, 2014
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0
Scientists discovered a tiny new species of catfish in the waters of Rio Rio Paraíba do Sul basin, Brazil. The new species Pareiorhina hyptiorhachis belongs to a genus of armored catfishes native to South America where and ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 9, 2013
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0
(Phys.org) —The next breakthrough in highly efficient battery technologies and solar cells may very well be nanoscopic crystals of silicon assembled like skyscrapers on wafer-scale substrates. An important route for growth ...
Nanophysics
Jun 14, 2013
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0
Crocodilians have nerves on their faces that are so sensitive, they can detect a change in a pond when a single drop hits the water surface several feet away. Alligators and crocodiles use these "invisible whiskers" to detect ...
Plants & Animals
Apr 4, 2013
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0
A specially-adapted 'tactile helmet', developed by researchers at the University of Sheffield, could provide fire-fighters operating in challenging conditions with vital clues about their surroundings.
Engineering
Mar 29, 2013
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0
(Phys.org) —Undeniably charismatic, the Northern Quoll's big black eyes and impossibly long whiskers belie the face of a feisty, nocturnal predator that has – as conservation biologist Dr Jonathan Webb discovered – ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 21, 2013
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