Smithsonian Magazine

This Robot Can Flap Its Wings to Both Fly and Swim. It Might One Day Help Scientists Study Diving Birds and Survey Ocean Habitats

The bioinspired device, which weighs roughly half a pound and measures around three feet wide, was also modeled after aquatic ...

In 1988, zebra mussels arrived in North America through a ship’s ballast water; within 10 years, they had spread across all five Great Lakes

Zebra mussels, an aquatic invader from Eurasia, continue their continental spread after arriving in North America. These tiny shellfish are now infesting Lake Meredith in Texas, raising new concerns.
The Conversation

Diving with penguins: tech gives ocean scientists a bird’s‑eye view of foraging in Antarctic waters

Chinstrap penguins are members of Antarctica’s brush-tailed group of penguins. They’re easily identified by the feature that gives them their name – a black strap that runs from ear to ear below the ...

Robot bird swims underwater then flies away

MIT and EPFL researchers built an 8.8-ounce robotic bird that flies, dives underwater and launches back into the air using ...
New Atlas

First bird-scale robot to swim, dive, and launch back into flight

A robot that swims like a diving bird and then flies like, well, a bird, sounds like the setup for two different machines bolted together. But researchers at MIT and EPFL built one that does both with ...
Hosted on MSN

Birdlike robot swims underwater, then flaps into flight without paddling

Loons, gulls, puffins and petrels are some of the 100 species of birds that can both fly and swim. These diving birds can plunge into water to swim after prey, and leap back into the air to fly away.