The CIA Once Created Robot Fish (Cool Weird Awesome 560)

It's National Go Fishing Day, though the fish in today’s story aren’t exactly the ones you’d expect to catch. They’re robotic fish called Charlie and Charlene, and they were developed by the Central Intelligence Agency. Plus: tomorrow is National Surfing Day, and one place you might mark the occasion is the Santa Cruz Surfing Museum in California.

By |2021-06-18T08:38:13-04:00June 18, 2021|Categories: Cool Weird Awesome, Podcasts|Tags: , , , , , |

Some Fish Pause For Effect When They Communicate (Cool Weird Awesome 548)

Sometimes it’s not just what you’re communicating, it’s how you communicate it. Pausing for effect can help get your point across. Humans know this, but according to researchers, so do some kinds of fish. Plus: a sculpture made only of "air and spirit" sells for 15,000 Euros. That's definitely not nothing.

By |2021-06-02T07:51:54-04:00June 2, 2021|Categories: Cool Weird Awesome, Podcasts|Tags: , , , |

Self-Directed Robot Fish May Point The Way Toward Roads Full Of Self-Driving Cars (Cool Weird Awesome 494)

Blueswarm is a school of autonomous robot fish who scan their surroundings and calculate how they can swim together without colliding, like a school of actual fish. And the technology modeled on "implicit coordination" may be useful for lots of other high-tech devices in the future. Plus: GLYPHS is a project to develop new perfumes based on typology. No, there isn't a Comic Sans scent just yet.

By |2021-03-11T08:36:42-05:00March 11, 2021|Categories: Cool Weird Awesome, Podcasts|Tags: , , |

The “Vantafish” Is A Fish That Absorbs Light (Cool Weird Awesome 344)

Vantablack is a color that's so black it absorbs almost all of the light nearby. There's new research out about a "vantafish" that does almost the same thing to avoid its hungry bioluminescent neighbors. Plus: you've heard of drive-in theaters; Paris is going to have a "float-in" theater featuring "socially distanced boats" on the Seine.

By |2021-01-08T10:12:48-05:00July 17, 2020|Categories: Cool Weird Awesome, Podcasts|Tags: , , , |

Antarctic Fish Are Helping Us Clear Ice (Cool Weird Awesome 231)

Researchers at UCLA have developed a coating that can take care of persistent ice in winter, and amazingly, it’s all due to fish. Plus: Kendall Diwisch of Edmonton, Alberta. who helped three kittens get unstuck from an icy situation.

By |2020-02-05T09:45:00-05:00February 5, 2020|Categories: Cool Weird Awesome, Podcasts|Tags: , , |
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