Robotic wing inspired by nature delivers leap in underwater stability
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Updates every hour. Last Updated: 4-Apr-2026 18:16 ET (4-Apr-2026 22:16 GMT/UTC)
Researchers have taken inspiration from nature to create a robotic wing that can sense and adapt to changes in water to deliver unparalleled stability.
Drawing on the adaptive movements of birds and fish, the wing senses disturbances in the flow of water and automatically changes its shape to adjust to these.
The team, led by the University of Southampton, hope the soft robotics and e-skin they’ve pioneered could help close the gap in manoeuvrability and efficiency between robots and animals.
In theTibetan Plateau, organophosphate tri-esters (tri-OPEs) and di-OPEs in soil and biota of a typical terrestrial food chain (plant–plateau pika–eagle) have been simultaneously identified with trophic dilution behavior. Differential metabolism—weak in plants versus strong in plateau pika and eagle—likely drove this pattern, highlighting metabolism's key role in OPE trophic transfer.