166. Jellyfish Cyborgs Help Explore The Oceans & Solve Climate Change

The Next Byte Podcast · 19 Mar 2024 · 21m

What this episode covers

Hosts Daniel and Forbode discuss a Caltech research project where scientists have turned jellyfish into 'cyborgs' to explore the deep ocean and monitor climate change. The team developed a low-cost electronic pacemaker to control swimming speed and a conical 'forebody' hat to hold sensors and improve hydrodynamics, allowing the jellyfish to swim up to 4.5 times faster while remaining healthy. This approach offers a scalable, ethical alternative to expensive robotic submarines for collecting oceanographic data.

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