Scientists Want To Use Drones To Capture Whale Snot
Testing a Snotbot with Snotshot, the team's custom whale-blow simulator.Courtesy Ocean AllianceWhales are awesome and important. But because they are so big and sensitive to sound, researchers have a hard time collecting all the data they need without freaking them out. Now, whale biologists from the nonprofit Ocean Alliance have teamed up with students from the Olin College of Engineering to create drones that can capture one of the most important biological materials--a whale’s snot--without disturbing the animals. They’ve launched a Kickstarter campaign to help fund their research.Whale “blow” is the combination of mucus, or snot, water, and tissue that may sound very gross, but is essential for whale biologists--from it, they can tell if the whales are stressed or pregnant based on their hormones, check their snot to see if they are infected with any viruses, or gather tissue samples for DNA analysis.Normally, the process...