• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to site footer
Science Update

Science Update

Sharing Science | Satisfying Curiosity | Debunking BS

  • Spotlights
  • Reality Check
  • Why Is It?
  • Radio Archives
  • Sciup @ School
Home » Radio Archive » Daily Show » Robo-Clam

Robo-Clam

April 10, 2014
https://podcast.scienceupdate.com/140410_sciup_clam.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window

BOB HIRSHON (host):

Introducing Robo-Clam. I’m Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update.

Atlantic razor clam. (Chris Corrigan/Flickr/(CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Atlantic razor clam. (Chris Corrigan/Flickr/CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

 

With an eye toward useful robots, engineers at MIT are unraveling the secrets of the Atlantic razor clam. These oblong clams, which look like old-fashioned razor handles, can quickly burrow into the sea floor using very little energy. Mechanical engineer Amos Winter’s team figured out how the clam sets itself up for success: by contracting its shell in a precisely timed manner.

AMOS WINTER (Massachusetts Institute of Technology):

And what that does is it pulls water in around them, and it liquefies the soil right adjacent to their body. So it basically makes a little pocket of quicksand.

HIRSHON:
Using this knowledge, Winter and his colleagues built a machine that could do the same thing. He says the robo-clams could be used as energy-efficient anchors for things like underwater cables, or larger autonomous robots that explore the undersea world. I’m Bob Hirshon for AAAS, the Science Society.

Category: Daily Show, Station DownloadTag: Animal Behavior, Engineering & Technology, Marine Science
Previous Post: « GPS Weather Jets
Next Post: Phylochip »

Sidebar

Radio Program Archives

Want to learn more about the brain? The environment? Here you can browse the topics that come up regularly on Science Update.

Search the Archives

Categories

  • Daily Show
  • Station Download
  • Weekly Show

Find By Tag

  • 2020
  • Acoustics & Sound
  • Aging
  • Animal Behavior
  • Anthropology
  • Archaeology
  • Astronomy & Space
  • Biology
  • Brain Science
  • Bugs
  • Chemistry
  • Children & Families
  • cicadas
  • Climate & Weather
  • Communications
  • Computer Science
  • Economics & Business
  • Education
  • Energy
  • Engineering & Technology
  • Environment & Conservation
  • Genetics & Evolution
  • Geology
  • Marine Science
  • Materials Science
  • Mathematics
  • Medicine & Health
  • Microbiology
  • Nanotechnology
  • Nutrition & Food Science
  • Paleontology & Dinosaurs
  • Physics
  • Plants & Agriculture
  • Political Science
  • Reality Check
  • Social & Behavioral Sciences
  • Sports & Fitness
  • spotlight
  • Spotlight Bugs
  • Terrorism & War
  • Why Is It? Questions
  • Wildlife
  • Year in Review

Find By Date

Science Update
  • About Science Update
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use

Follow Us

Recent Posts

House sparrow wearing top hat rides aboard a red fireworks rocket
Biologist E.O. Wilson with children
Diagram showing Earth's tilt

Copyright © 2022 · Springtail Media LLC · All Rights Reserved · Powered by Pongos