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Mantis shrimp seem to have 12 types of photo-receptive sensors - but this does not really improve their ability to discriminate between colors. Speculation is that they serve as a form of pre-processing for visual information: the brain does not need to decode full color information from just a few channels which would would allow for a smaller brain. I guess technologically the two extremes of light detection would be RGB cameras which are like our eyes and offer good spatial resolution, and spectrometers which have a large amount of color channels but at the cost of spatial resolution. It seems the mantis shrimp uses something that is somewhere between RGB cameras and spectrometers. Could there be a use for this in space?

> RGB cameras which are like our eyes ...apart from the fact that the spectral response of the eyes is completely different from "RGB" cameras (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cones_SMJ2_E.svg) ... and that the eyes have 4 types of light-sensitive cells, not three (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cone-response.svg) ... and that, unlike cameras, human eye is precise only in a very narrow centre region (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fovea) ...hmm, apart from relying on tri-stimulus colour perception it seems human eyes are in fact completely different from "RGB cameras" :-) OK sorry for picking on this - that's just the colour science geek in me :-) Now seriously, on one hand the article abstract sounds very interesting, but on the other the statement "Why use 12 color channels when three or four are sufficient for fine color discrimination?" reveals so much ignorance to the very basics of colour science that I'm completely puzzled - in the end, it's a Science article so it should be reasonably scientifically sound, right? Pity I can't access full text... the interesting thing is that more channels mean more information and therefore should require *more* power to process - which is exactly opposite to their theory (as far as I can tell it from the abstract...). So the key is to understand *what* information about light these mantises are collecting and why - definitely it's not "colour" in the sense of human perceptual experience. But in any case - yes, spectrometry has its uses in space :-)

not even gears are a human invention it seems ... Gears are found rarely in animals and have never been reported to intermesh and rotate functionally like mechanical gears. We now demonstrate functional gears in the ballistic jumping movements of the flightless planthopper insect Issus. The nymphs, but not adults, have a row of cuticular gear (cog) teeth around the curved medial surfaces of their two hindleg trochantera. The gear teeth on one trochanter engaged with and sequentially moved past those on the other trochanter during the preparatory cocking and the propulsive phases of jumping. Close registration between the gears ensured that both hindlegs moved at the same angular velocities to propel the body without yaw rotation. At the final molt to adulthood, this synchronization mechanism is jettisoned.

Fascinating! New type of spider silk?

Loosely related to an old ACT project on optical flow (if I remember correctly but even if not still an interesting read I think): "At first glance, the eyes of mammals and those of insects do not seem to have much in common. However, a comparison of the neural circuits for detecting motion shows surprising parallels between flies and mice. Scientists have learned a lot about the visual perception of both animals in recent years."

whoa!!!

impressive (http://www-clmc.usc.edu/Research/LearningLocomotion for papers ...)

could it be useful in e.g. propellant tanks?

did you see the quote of Andrew Martin at the bottom of the text? he was in the cockroach project.

ah. interesting

looks like an interesting institute to me ... anybody wants to have a closer look?

Tobias - have a look at this one ... am surprised to see this "new" paper since thought to remember that in our study they presented something quite similar ....

I always new it - the future of telecom is with pigeons ... (what happened to our idea of the pigeon inspired navigator??)

Well, it's been newn... I mean known since computer networks were invented that it'll take them a long time to match with a throughput of a train carrying recorded media. The point is that throughput is not the only important parameter: the other is response time... (BTW let's see how this commenting feature works, not many folks seem to use it...)

I do use it quite regularily .... a train full of DVDs and flash drives, yes ok - but a pigeon!!!!

吉林大学地面机械仿生技术教育部重点实验室

we have to get one of these flying pinguins!!! who knows more about this company? Tobias, these are the same ones that you had shown me I assume?

reminds me of our small study a few years ago ... why didn't we come up with this idea?

The authors report a simple self-assembly technique for fabricating antireflection coatings that mimic antireflective moth eyes. Wafer-scale, nonclose-packed colloidal crystals with remarkable large hexagonal domains are created by a spin-coating technolo

The vibrissae of rats (et al) are examined and transferred to robotic devices for orientation and tactile exploration.

A new way to move in sand. Which makes me think of the biggest challenge ever: path integration while moving on sand!

In nature, the molecular-recognition ability of peptides and, consequently, their functions are evolved through successive cycles of mutation and selection. Using biology as a guide, we can now select, tailor, and control peptide-solid interactions and ex

Completely crazy robots, including sensors for joint position, joint forces, ground contact...

electrically charged spider web ...