EurekAlert! Staff Picks
Each month, our team members share their favorite recent news releases, stories that caught their eye, sparked their curiosity, or made them think. We hope you’ll find them just as interesting!
Seth Rose
Editorial Content Manager
Even during the height of the COVID pandemic when I'd always wear a mask outside the house, I can't deny that they were uncomfortable in some circumstances. I appreciate research, like this study from Institute of Industrial Science, University of Tokyo, that recognizes this possible impediment to mask usage and focuses not just on increasing their virus-blocking efficiency but also their comfort for the wearer. Hopefully research like this will make the future pandemics (*knocks wood*) just a little more bearable.
I love it when developments in different technologies (in this case robotics and 3D printing) intersect to allow scientists to create something they may not have considered before. "Electronics-free robots" might be a phrase that wouldn't make any sense to researchers from a few decades ago, but as described in this release, UC San Diego roboticists made it real with $20 worth of off-the-shelf 3D printing materials.
Mantis shrimp are just so cool! I love the idea that something so small can have such an incredibly complex biology. I also appreciate the potential applicability to human technology like blast shields and sound filtering in this study. This study really hammers (punches?) home the idea that while we humans have done pretty well for ourselves, it's hard for us to outdo nature.