Percy the Martian rover is currently having a field day, literally. Already it has sent 13,854 images and recorded an audio of itself driving around on the Martian landscape. Based on the information received so far, indications are that there could be water trapped under he Martian crust. A great feat indeed. Percy's three dimensional measurements are equally impressive: weight 1025kg, height of 7ft, width 9ft and length 10ft. And it is made of rigid, tough material because the terrain it explores demands it.
However Percy would be crushed and crunched if it ever attempted to explore the secrets of Mariana trench. This is the deepest oceanic ditch at a depth of 11,000 meters. Domain experts are of the opinion that the trench can submerge Mount Everest completely , with still a clearance of 2 kilo meters of water column above it. The trench is not quite a touristic spot what with pressures upto 1000 bars and temperature below 4degC and total darkness. Initially it was thought that life as we know it couldn't exist there but later studies revealed that he trench is home to several marine species. So how do these species befriend such hostile the conditions or more correctly how do they adapt themselves?Deep sea investigators found that Nature has played its evolutionary tricks to perfection. Studying the anatomy of deep sea snailfish,Pseudoliparis swirei, researchers detected several peculiarities. The body is a bit gooey and the skull is not in one piece but has a fractured format perhaps to accommodate internal and external pressure differences The bones are not calcified but are tender cartilages. In fact the species lack the gene for calcification altogether. The snailfish is about 15-20cm in length yet can withstand more water pressure than 1,600 elephants standing on its head says Mckenzie Gerringer whose area of research is deep sea Physiology and Ecology .
Taking cues from the anatomy of the snailfish, a team of Chinese scientists have now designed a soft robot exactly like the original. Pliable polymer silicon is used to shape the gooey body with a body length of 11.5cm and tail length of 10.5cm, and a wing span of 28cm. Muscles are made of dielectric elastomers(DE), which are smart electroactive materials that can produce strain. Each DE muscle is equipped with a compliant electrode inserted between two layers of DE sheets. Instead of packaging the electronics in a single printed circuit board, the team made a distributed array of several small PCBs, gain a takeaway from the original. The team conducted field tests in Mariana trench itself, in South China sea as well as in deep lakes. The results are extremely promising. It is expected that such soft robots will help us unlock the secrets of the deep sea.Tailpiece
The name Pseudoliparis swirei, is indeed a tribute to the memory of Herbert Swire, a member of a British marine expedition team. In 1870, HMS Challenger carried this team to explore the depths of the sea and they discovered the Mariana Trench. Herbert Swire was the navigational sub-lieutenant who kept an accurate journal and published it later.
REFERENCES:
1. Life history of abyssal and hadal fishes from otolith growth zones and oxygen isotopic compositions.
2. Introducing Mariana Snailfish
3.Distribution, composition and functions of gelatinous tissues in deep-sea fishes: Gerringer et al
4. Morphology and genome of a snailfish from the Mariana Trench provide insights into deep-sea adaptation. Kun Wang et al
