Megacities Grow Around the World

On this week's news update…

Octopus Behavior

Scientists film strange octopus behavior…

Megacities

Megacities grow around the world…

Self-Building Robots

And robots that build themselves!

First up…

Octopuses live in most of the world's oceans.

The tentacled creatures spend most of their time alone, and don’t often come into close contact with each other. However, scientists have filmed what happens when octopuses do get close to one another, and the footage is surprising!

gloomy octopus

They filmed a species known as the “gloomy octopus” near the Australian coast. Some recordings show the octopuses throwing shells at others as they try to get near, and others show octopuses spraying sand!

Scientists are trying to find out if this behavior shows that octopuses like to protect their peace and quiet, or whether there may be another reason behind their unusual behavior!

Up next…

Many cities around the world are growing larger. When a city's population reaches ten million people, about the size of New York, it becomes known as a megacity.

Guangzhou

Huge megacities like Guangzhou in China are becoming so large that they are linking together with other cities.

megalopolis

Known as a “megalopolis,” these huge areas are often home to more people than some countries!

City planners, people who design cities, are working to make sure they grow into safe and healthy places to live. They have to figure out how to provide enough homes for people to live in, and how to build enough transport links for people to travel around comfortably.

Large cities can also bring environmental benefits, with city dwellers using less living space than people living in more rural areas. As cities grow larger than ever, we will need to carefully plan how millions more people can comfortably live together as neighbors!

And finally…

Tech Beat

It's Tech Beat!

Robots can do some pretty cool things! Now, engineers are developing robot technology that could one day build almost anything!

voxels

The new robot system uses “voxels,” individual units made from plastic and magnets.

Each voxel can be connected, and can communicate with other voxels. This enables the voxels to attach to each other. Once several voxels are connected, they can then move to grab another voxel, and move it into position to build a simple structure.

The voxels aren't yet strong enough to create large structures. But engineers are developing computer systems that will enable more complex structures to be built.

The cutting-edge technology could one day see voxel-like robots construct entire buildings!

That's all for this week, we'll see you next time!