Robert Full is a professor at the University of California-Berkeley. He studies cockroach legs and gecko feet. His research is helping build the perfect “distributed foot” for tomorrow’s robots, based on nature’s engineering.
In this video he describes the remarkable features of insect and animal legs, and shows you a robot built based on these same principles:
Enjoy!
Perry Marshall
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Werner Gitt’s book In The Beginning Was Information [Free PDF] is superb and provided the initial inspiration for all I have done with Information Theory. I owe Werner Gitt a debt of gratitude for producing one of the most clear and profound science books I’ve ever read. Read more »
Researchers at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, United States believe that they have found the purpose of the vermiform appendix, long thought to be useless.
Illustration showing make-up of the human appendix.
Physicist Richard Feynman was a notorious researcher and blazing personality in the history of science.
He’s known for his work on the atomic bomb, for creating a visual representation of subatomic particles, and pioneering work in quantum computing. Read more »
A gentleman named Johan posted this as a comment and it was so good I felt it deserved it’s own blog post:
I couldn’t find any referral to the the Craig Venter Institute’s recent achievement.
Some atheists regard it as another blow to Christianity but in my view it is another Read more »
Imagine that someone gives you a mystery novel with an entire page ripped out.
And let’s suppose someone else comes up with a computer program that reconstructs the missing page, by assembling sentences and paragraphs lifted from other places in the book.
Imagine that this computer program does such a beautiful job that most people can’t tell the page was ever missing.
DNA does that.
In the 1940’s, the eminent scientist Barbara McClintock damaged parts of the DNA in corn maize. To her amazement, Read more »
The New Atheism
“The New Atheism” has become especially loud and strident since September 11, 2001. Bestselling books like Richard Dawkins’ “The God Delusion” and battles over evolution vs. design in school boards are front page news. It might even appear that 21st century atheism is an unstoppable force.
But there’s another side to the story. Read more »
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As an Electrical Engineer, I am appalled at the intellectual slop that passes for science in biology.
Engineers would lose their jobs in droves if they tolerated the mushy thinking and lack of rigor that is routine in the life sciences. Before I elaborate on this, some background.
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Two groups of people insist that Genesis and modern science are incompatible: Secularists and Young Earth Creationists. Both camps have damaged the credibility of the Jewish creation story. But today I would like to suggest to you that there’s a 3rd way. Read more »
A guy named “SittingOnTheFence” is hovering between belief and non-belief. He asks me some GREAT questions.
He says: Read more »
