The above octopus seen in the Bonin Islands near Japan in 2008. Octopuses are masters at flying under the radar, changing their coloration and texture to match their surroundings in seconds. (Though the massive extinct shark Megalodon isn't one of them.) ![]() As many as a million unknown species may live within these depths. Barely any of Earth's “deep pelagic zone”-the 240 million cubic miles of water more than 660 feet below the surface-has been explored for life. “We want to understand them without destroying them.” Gotta Catch (and Release) 'em Allĭespite more than a century of research, the lower reaches of the sea remain mysterious and starkly understudied. “Life in the deep ocean is slow-moving and old,” said study coauthor and National Geographic explorer Robert Wood, a Harvard University roboticist, in an email. Its creators hope the apparatus could help make deep-sea biology gentler on the life it studies. ![]() ![]() The five-armed cage can snap into place in less than a second, safely catching swimming jellyfish and shape-shifting octopuses in water more than 2,000 feet deep.Ĭalled RAD (“Rotary Actuated Dodecahedron”), the device could help scientists catch elusive creatures at the bottom of the ocean, collect data while they’re contained inside, and then let them go unharmed. This real-life Poké Ball, unveiled in Science Robotics on Wednesday, is a twelve-sided enclosure slightly smaller than a bowling ball that opens and shuts with a single actuator, keeping it as mechanically simple as possible. To catch deep-sea creatures is its real test to release them safely is its cause. A new robotic grabber wants to be the very best, like no sampler ever was.
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