Interesting-Links

Chinese Scientists Bioengineering Plants With Firefly Genes to Glow, in Effort to Light Cities at Night The bioluminescent flora were created by splicing genes from fireflies and glowing fungi into the plant cells, allowing them to emit a soft glow.

Researchers at Tufts University have developed a biomimetic coating that changes color when struck, revealing both the location and approximate strength of an impact without needing embedded electronics.

Sparxell is on a mission to revolutionise the world of industrial colourants. Its patented technology uses cellulose from wood pulp to create structural colour – the same principle that creates iridescent butterfly wings – eliminating petroleum-based chemicals, titanium dioxide and toxic heavy metals and minerals.

This moth-wing-inspired acoustic technology is a strong near-term applicability story because the biological idea is being turned into ultra-thin sound absorption for real interior environments.

In the future, tiny flying robots could be deployed to aid in the search for survivors trapped beneath the rubble after a devastating earthquake.

Grasshoppers may not spring to mind as paragons of graceful flight. But for a team of Princeton engineers, these gangly insects have inspired a new approach to robotic wings.

Bees navigate their surroundings with astonishing precision. Their brains are now inspiring the design of tiny, low-power chips that could one day guide miniature robots and sensors.

Researchers at Japan’s National Institute of Informatics and collaborators built an insect-inspired robot that can keep tracking an odor source even when one of its two odor sensors fails, by copying the adaptive behavior of silkmoths, which can still navigate with only one antenna.

Anyone remember smart dust? A cloud of sensors were thrown from a plane into a .. real cloud to study storms, wind patterns, etc.

New tools such as AI, automated tracking, drones, and even virtual reality are letting scientists watch animal groups like flocks, schools, and swarms in far more detail than before.

A case in point: “…decided amongst themselves when to strike.” No “agentic frameworks”… just swarms. https://slashdot.org/story/446276

Google DeepMind’s Perch model helps conservationists analyze audio faster to protect endangered species, from Hawaiian honeycreepers to coral reefs. https://deepmind.google/discover/blog/how-ai-is-helping-advance-the-science-of-bioacoustics-to-save-endangered-species/