New research in Medical and Veterinary Entomology reveals that when rhinoceroses are found dead after being illegally killed by poachers, analyzing insects on the decomposing body aids in estimating the time since death. This information has been used by investigators and officials to construct cases against suspected perpetrators.

The study included 19 rhinoceroses that were illegally killed and dehorned in the Republic of South Africa between 2014 and 2021. Scientists collected 74 samples of insect evidence from these rhinoceros remains, from which an accurate estimate of their time of death was calculated. The specimens included 18 species from 12 families belonging to three insect orders.

“This has implications across both the science of forensic entomology and forensic wildlife, and especially highlights the opportunities for improving the global understanding of the procedures related to criminal wildlife cases,” said co–corresponding author Ian R. Dadour, Ph.D., of Source Certain and Murdoch University, in Australia. “Over the last 30 years, the results of this new activity combined with ranger teams and satellite tracking have led to a rebound in rhinoceros populations.”

Engineers have worked out how to give robots complex instructions without electricity for the first time, which could free up more space in the robotic ‘brain’ for them to ‘think.’

Mimicking how some parts of the human body work, researchers from King’s College London have transmitted a series of commands to devices with a new kind of compact circuit, using variations in pressure from a fluid inside it.

They say this world first opens up the possibility of a new generation of robots, whose bodies could operate independently of their built-in control center, with this space potentially being used instead for more complex AI-powered software.

“Delegating tasks to different parts of the body frees up computational space for robots to ‘think,’ allowing future generations of robots to be more aware of their social context or even more dexterous. This opens the door for a new kind of robotics in places like social care and manufacturing,” said Dr. Antonio Forte, Senior Lecturer in Engineering at King’s College London and senior author of the study.

The findings, published in Advanced Science could also enable the creation of robots able to operate in situations where electricity-powered devices cannot work, such as exploration in irradiated areas like Chernobyl which destroy circuits, and in electricity sensitive environments like MRI rooms.

The researchers also hope that these robots could eventually be used in low-income countries which do not have reliable access to electricity.

Dr. Forte said, “Put simply, robots are split into two parts: the brain and the body. An AI brain can help run the traffic system of a city, but many robots still struggle to open a door—why is that?

“Software has advanced rapidly in recent years, but hardware has not kept up. By creating a hardware system independent from the software running it, we can offload a lot of the computational load onto the hardware, in the same way your brain doesn’t need to tell your heart to beat.”

Currently, all robots rely on electricity and computer chips to function. A robotic ‘brain’ of algorithms and software translates information to the body or hardware through an encoder, which then performs an action.

In ‘soft robotics,’ a field which creates devices like robotic muscles out of soft materials, this is particularly an issue as it introduces hard electronic encoders and puts strain on the software for the material to act in a complex way, e.g. grabbing a door handle.

To circumvent this, the team developed a reconfigurable circuit with an adjustable valve to be placed within a robot’s hardware. This valve acts like a transistor in a normal circuit and engineers can send signals directly to hardware using pressure, mimicking binary code, allowing the robot to perform complex maneuvers without the need for electricity or instruction from the central brain. This allows for a greater level of control than current fluid-based circuits.

By offloading the work of the software onto the hardware, the new circuit frees up computational space for future robotic systems to be more adaptive, complex, and useful.

As a next step, the researchers now hope to scale up their circuits from experimental hoppers and pipettes and embed them in larger robots, from crawlers used to monitor power plants to wheeled robots with entirely soft engines.

Mostafa Mousa, Post-graduate Researcher at King’s College London and author, said, “Ultimately, without investment in embodied intelligence, robots will plateau. Soon, if we do not offload the computational load that modern day robots take on, algorithmic improvements will have little impact on their performance. Our work is just a first step on this path, but the future holds smarter robots with smarter bodies.”

Stressed bees are much more likely to make pessimistic choices and lack a buzz in life, new research has revealed.

Scientists at Newcastle University, UK, have found that bumblebees have a response to an adverse event resembling human emotions.

Findings published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B show that bees reduce their expectations of reward when they are agitated, and this could impact how they approach and pollinate flowers.

High and low rewards

Researchers trained bees to decide whether a color signaled something good or bad. Bees learned to identify that different colors were associated with different outcomes, with one color associated with a sweet reward location and another color indicating a location that had a much lower reward. Bees learned the difference and visited the appropriate location when shown each color.

Once bees learned these associations, two groups experienced a simulated predatory attack, and a third group did not experience any external stress.

The bees who had experienced the attack were found to be much less likely to interpret ambiguous colors as indicating high rewards, and in response, visited low reward locations more than the control bees.

Dr. Vivek Nityananda, from Newcastle University, said, “Our study shows that bees are more pessimistic after stress, as their behavior suggests that they do not expect to get rewards.

“Emotions are complex states and in humans involve a subjective understanding of what you are feeling. We might never know if bees feel something similar. However, what this research can say is that bees have similar responses when they are stressed and make pessimistic choices. The best explanation for their behavior is that they expect high rewards to be less likely and exhibit traits of pessimistic people.”

Scientists say the research is important, as it means stress can impact how bees approach flowers and pollinate plants, as well as their ability to access high-quality rewards.

The results also show that we can find emotion-like responses in very different animals, including insects. The bees in the study were stressed by shaking or being trapped by a robotic arm with a sponge.

‘Emotion-like’ states

Dr. Olga Procenko led the research at Newcastle University and is now a researcher at the University of Birmingham.

She said, “Our research suggests that like other animals including humans, bees may experience emotion-like states when stressed, as demonstrated by a clear shift towards pessimism. When faced with ambiguity, stressed bees, much like someone seeing the glass as ‘half empty,’ are more likely to expect negative outcomes.

“Besides suggesting that states akin to emotion may be evolutionarily conserved, our study opens up new possibilities for understanding how stress affects insect cognition and behavior, which could provide insights into their responses to environmental challenges and inform conservation efforts.”

Further research is needed to understand what the exact implications are for the pollination of flowers and plants.

Dr. Nityananda added, “We need to figure out how bees evaluate rewards when stressed and whether these states in bees show other properties we see in emotions. We also need to investigate the neural mechanisms involved and see if bees in the wild show similar responses.”

Researchers from Tampere University in Finland and Anhui Jianzhu University in China have made a significant breakthrough in soft robotics. Their study introduces the first toroidal, light-driven micro-robot that can move autonomously in viscous liquids, such as mucus. This innovation marks a major step forward in developing micro-robots capable of navigating complex environments, with promising applications in fields such as medicine and environmental monitoring.

Their paper, titled “Light-steerable locomotion using zero-elastic-energy modes,” was recently published in Nature Materials.

A peek through an optical microscope reveals a hidden universe teeming with life. Nature has devised ingenious methods for micro-organisms to navigate their viscous environments: for example, E. coli bacteria employ corkscrew motions, cilia move in coordinated waves, and flagella rely on a whip-like beating to propel themselves forward. However, swimming at the microscale is akin to a human attempting to swim through honey, due to the overwhelming viscous forces.

Inspired by nature, scientists specializing in cutting-edge micro-robotic technologies are now on the trail of a solution. At the heart of Tampere University’s pioneering research is a synthetic material known as liquid crystalline elastomer. This elastomer reacts to stimuli like lasers. When heated, it rotates on its own due to a special zero-elastic-energy mode (ZEEM), caused by the interaction of static and dynamic forces.

According to Zixuan Deng, a Doctoral Researcher at Tampere University and the first author of the study, this discovery not only represents a significant leap forward in soft robotics but also paves the way for the development of micro-robots capable of navigating complex environments.

“The implications of this research extend beyond robotics, potentially impacting fields such as medicine and environmental monitoring. For instance, this innovation could be used for drug transportation through physiological mucus and unblocking blood vessels after the miniaturization of the device,” he says.

Doughnut shape simplifies control of swimming robots

For decades, scientists have been fascinated by the unique challenges of swimming at the microscale, a concept introduced by physicist Edward Purcell in 1977. He was the first to imagine the toroidal topology—a doughnut shape—for its potential to improve the navigation of microscopic organisms in environments where viscous forces are dominant and inertial forces are negligible. This is known as the Stokes regime or the low Reynolds number limit. Although it seemed promising, no such toroidal swimmer had been demonstrated.

Now, a breakthrough in toroidal design has simplified the control of swimming robots, eliminating the need for complex architectures. By using a single beam of light to trigger non-reciprocal motion, these robots leverage ZEEM to autonomously determine their movements.

“Our innovation enables three-dimensional free swimming in the Stokes regime and opens up new possibilities for exploring confined spaces, such as microfluidic environments. In addition, these toroidal robots can switch between rolling and self-propulsion modes to adapt to their environment,” adds Deng.

Deng believes that future research will explore the interactions and collective dynamics of multiple tori, potentially leading to new methods of communication between these intelligent microrobots.

Culminating the development of light-driven soft robotics

This latest study represents the culmination of findings from two major research projects.

The first project, STORM-BOTS, aims to train a new generation of researchers in the field of soft robotics, with a specific focus on liquid crystal elastomers. As part of this project, Deng’s doctoral dissertation research is centered on developing light-driven soft robots that can move efficiently in both air and water. His work is co-supervised by Professor Arri Priimagi and Professor Hao Zeng from Tampere University.

The second project, ONLINE, explores non-equilibrium soft actuator systems. This project aims to achieve self-sustained motion, enabling novel robotic functions such as locomotion, interaction, and communication.