Cave-Exploring Snake Robot Gets Inspiration From Sidewinders

"Three years ago, a robotic snake called Elizabeth slithered into Egyptian caves to search for long-hidden ships. The serpentine robot (named after its designer's wife) was designed to explore spaces that humans cannot. She can slide over rough terrain, slink through tight cracks, and manoeuvre around rubble. During her Egyptian field test, she performed beautifully, with one major exception: When the team tried to drive her up sandy slopes, she slipped and slid." A real snake--the sidewinder--has no such problem..." (Image: Adam Thompson)

More good reads

• A professor's quest to cure his children's type 1 diabetes has led to a new way to make the insulin-producing cells. Great coverage of an important study, by Karen Weintraub
• Is evolution replicable? Emily Singer on a bold experiment with yeast that addresses this longstanding question (although ignore the title).
• This is a *fascinating* piece on an aptly-named group of research-borking chemicals called PAINS. By Jonathan Baell and Michael Walters
• Great story about a rebel doctor who's transplanting organs from HIV-infected donors to HIV-infected patients. By Sara Reardon.
• Are some parts of the world evolutionary incubators for invasive species? Carl Zimmer reports.
• Dawn of the Plaintiff of the Apes. Great piece by Charles Siebert on a legal case about the personhood of chimps.
• Superb piece on the ethics of testing an Ebola vaccine in the midst of the epidemic, by Jon Cohen and Kai Kupferschmidt
• Woman gives birth after womb transplant. The future is now.
• A feature on the married team who won a Nobel for their work on the brain’s GPS. By Alison Abbott.  
• Natalie Angier on the lingering mystery of giraffes
• Scientist makes chance discovery while setting up lab at Imperial, builds £43 eye tracker

More good links will be released in tomorrow's linkfest on Not Exactly Rocket Science.

You can also follow me on Twitter, find regular writing on my blog. If someone has forwarded this email to you, you can sign up yourself.

And that's it! Thanks for reading.

-Ed