Originally published at: Researchers reanimate dead spiders as robot grippers in "necrobotics" breakthrough | Boing Boing
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Zombie. Cyborg. Spiders. I did not have that in my apocalypse pool.
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“We’re science: we’re all about coulda, not shoulda.” – P. Oswalt
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kudos for innovative functional gross-osity, but how is this likely to become a profitable endeavor over some reproducibility made hydraulic polymer pick-ups?
(“There’s another jam in the dead spider chute! send in the cat”)
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Oh yay, we’ve evolved to mimic fungus.
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Good question. I would guess evolution has developed intricately articulated grippy limbs that may be easier to grow than to construct? I have read that some cricket shipments come with free spiders, so some kinds are easy to rear.
ETA: Also, it’s how to be an arachnolologist and get some DOD money or tech investment.
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Four words which should not be in a sentence together: spiders, undead, zombie, and robots.
However, the term “Necrobotics” is absolutely excellent, a wonderful portmanteau. Well done, scientists. Now stop mucking about with dead spider zombie robots!
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If your science sounds like a Warhammer 40K faction, you should think twice about it…
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So. Spiders “fail safe” when they go caput. The opposite of a dead-man switch.
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They can come to my house if they need some more spiders (dead or still alive).
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Creepy. Literally.
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Do you want Replicators?
Because this is how you get Replicators.
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Yep. And sort of disrespectful [to the spider].
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Trying to burnish that evil scientist image, I see.
