Giraffes Inherit Their Spots

On this week’s news update:

Robot arms have the soft touch…

Soft Touch

Researchers reveal the secret behind giraffe spots…

Giraffe Spots

And the concrete that’s bendable.

Bendable Concrete

First up, Tech Beat.

Human hands can perform all kinds of delicate movements.

However, robotic submarine arms, used in underwater research, struggle with small, accurate gestures.

That makes it difficult to handle plants and animals gently.

Now scientists at the Wyss Institute at Harvard University have developed a soft and flexible robot arm.

Its movements are controlled by a researcher wearing a special glove.

These new robot arms mean that in the future, it will be easier to carry out research without damaging marine life.

Next up, we all know what giraffes look like.

But we don’t know much about why they look like that.

Now, thanks to new research from Penn State University in the US, we understand that calves inherit the pattern of their spots from their mothers.

The researchers studied Masai giraffes in Tanzania, Africa, and found that not only did the calves have the same shape of spots as their mothers, but the spots also had a similar degree of smoothness to their edges.

The researchers also discovered that calves with larger, more irregular-shaped spots were less likely to be killed by predators.

This could mean that irregular spots provide better camouflage.

And finally, concrete is everywhere.

It’s the most commonly used human-made material in the world.

It’s very strong, but also brittle – it can’t bend very much before breaking.

This means sidewalks and roads need to be repaired again and again.

It gets expensive!

But scientists around the world have been working on a solution, inspired by a shellfish called an abalone!

abalone

The shiny material inside abalone shells is made up of tiny blocks, held together with a soft substance that makes the material strong and flexible.

Concrete is normally just a mixture of gravel and sand held together with cement.

But when scientists added lots of tiny stretchy fibers, it was able to bend without breaking.

It was also able to self-repair!

This means it could be useful not only for road repairs, but could help protect buildings from the effects of natural disasters.

That’s all for this week – we’ll see you next time!