The stereotypical reaching motion of the octopus arm has drawn growing attention for its efficient control of a highly deformable body. Previous studies suggest that its characteristic bend propagation may share underlying principles with the dynamics of a whip. This work investigates whether whip-like passive dynamics in water can reproduce the kinematic features observed in biological reaching and their similarities and differences. Platform-based whipping tests were performed in water and air while systematically varying material stiffness and driving speed. Image-based quantification revealed that the Ecoflex Gel 2 arm driven at 150 rpm (motor speed) reproduced curvature propagation similar to that observed in octopus reaching. However, its bend-point velocity decreased monotonically rather than exhibiting the biological bell-shaped profile, confirming that the octopus reaching movement is not merely a passive whipping behavior. The absence of propagation in air further highlights the critical role of the surrounding medium in forming octopus-like reaching motion. This study provides a new perspective for understand biological reaching movement, and offers a potential platform for future hydrodynamic research.

No question about it: Data-driven organizations are clearly on to something. Such organizations are three times more likely to report significant improvement in decision making, according to a PwC Global Data & Analytics survey, which polled 1,135 executives. Research by MIT's Center for Digital Business uncovered similar results in interviews with executives at 330 North American businesses. "The more companies characterized themselves as data-driven, the better they performed on objective measures of financial and operational results," MIT's Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson reported in Harvard Business Review. So what do analytics leaders--and their data-driven initiatives--need to succeed?