Birds Make Better Bipedal Bots Than Humans Do

Sponsored by

    

April 12, 2022

Dear Reader, Walking on two legs is harder than it seems—especially for robots. Now researchers have developed a more energy-efficient bipedal bot by using birds, rather than humans, as models.

Sophie Bushwick, Associate Editor, Technology

Robotics Birds Make Better Bipedal Bots Than Humans Do A new machine called BirdBot balances walking efficiency and speed By Joanna Thompson

Materials Science New 'Ionogels' Are Tough, Stretchable and Easy to Make They could find use as protective material, 3-D printer "ink" or longer-lasting batteries By Sophie Bushwick

Toxicology Will Russia Use Chemical Weapons in Ukraine? Researchers Evaluate the Risks Analysts explain why some fear that the Russian military will use chemical weapons—and how the world would know if it did By Davide Castelvecchi,Nature magazine

Sponsor Content Provided by Wiley There's beauty in the breakthrough Discover new skills and expertise with the limitless resources at wiley.com.

Climate Change What AI Can Do for Climate Change, and What Climate Change Can Do for AI To tackle the climate crisis, artificial intelligence is becoming more open and democratic By Wai Chee Dimock

Politics India's Inadvertent Missile Launch Underscores the Risk of Accidental Nuclear Warfare Complex weapon systems are inherently prone to accidents, and this latest launch is one of a long history of military accidents in India By Zia Mian,M. V. Ramana

Natural Disasters Most States Are Failing on Building Codes, FEMA Says Thirty-nine states received the agency's lowest score, including many of the most disaster-prone By Thomas Frank,E&E News

Climate Change Carbon Removal 'Unavoidable' as Climate Dangers Grow, New IPCC Report Says But if the world relies too heavily on this strategy, it could risk overshooting targets to limit warming By Chelsea Harvey,E&E News

Computing Lost Women of Science Podcast, Season 2, Episode 2: Women Needed Klára Dán von Neumann arrives in Princeton, N.J., just as war breaks out in Europe By Katie Hafner,The Lost Women of Science Initiative

FROM THE STORE Scientific American Print & Digital Subscription For $34.99 a year, your Print & Digital Subscription includes monthly delivery of print issues and is accessible on all of your devices via the web and Android and iOS apps.

QUOTE OF THE DAY "When the sun came up, the first motorists were greeted by an eerie spectacle: 642 crosses marked the precise spots where dozens of animals had been killed by vehicles during the past few years. Each cross displayed the common name of each animal, a drawing of the animal and a QR code that linked to the roadkill incident logged on the citizen science platform Observation International." Menno Schilthuizen, Scientific American

ADVERTISEMENT

FROM THE ARCHIVE The Clumsy Quest to Perfect the Walking Robot Why is it so hard to build a walking robot? By John Pavlus | July 2016

LATEST ISSUES

Questions?   Comments?

Download the Scientific American App

To view this email as a web page, go here. You received this email because you opted-in to receive email from Scientific American. To ensure delivery please add news@email.scientificamerican.com to your address book. Unsubscribe     Manage Email Preferences     Privacy Policy     Contact Us