Sea Slug Provides The Muscle For Tiny Robot

Sea slugs typically slither--a perfectly respectable way to get around--but recently a team of scientists saw additional locomotive potential in the odd-looking invertebrate. Specifically, they took a tiny muscle from the sea slug's mouth and used it to make a robot crawl. "We're building a living machine--a biohybrid robot that's not completely organic--yet," Victoria Webster, the PhD student who is leading the research, said in a statement. A sea slug might seem an unlikely source for robot parts. But according to the researchers, sea slugs are exceptionally tough creatures, and that toughness extends down to the cellular level.