The Week Unwrapped: Snake robots, farm protests and pet food
What can we learn from the skin of sidewinders? Why are farmers descending on Delhi? And would your cat eat lab-grown mouse protein?
by The Week team
5 Feb 2021
Olly Mann and The Week delve behind the headlines and debate what really matters from the past seven days.
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In this week’s episode, we discuss:
Snake robots
Research published this week by Emory University in Atlanta has suggested that the reason sidewinding snakes are able to move so quickly over sand is that their scales are covered in microscopic dimples that help to reduce friction between their skin and the sand. This discovery, scientists suggest, could lead to a new approach to robotics - for example in machines designed to cross loose ground after mudslides or earthquakes.