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Snakes actively adjust their friction, Marvi explained, by modifying the relative angle between their scales and the surface, to adjust the levels of friction according to their needs. Marvi and his colleagues adopted these principles to create Scalybot, an artificial robot designed to climb inclined planes. Scalybot contains scale-like teeth along the bottom of its body, and these teeth can raise or lower depending on what it needs to do to navigate the environment.

Using a fast-pulsing laser, physicists have recorded the first moments of electrical resistance, the friction that generates heat as electricity travels through circuits.

Physicists knew electrical resistance didn’t kick in the moment a voltage was applied. Electrons experience some freedom before slowing to a crawl and scattering. What wasn’t certain was how quickly they make that transition (illustrated in the animation above, with electrons in blue, “electron holes” left by departing electrons in red, and voltage signified by the green arrow).