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Shankar Venkataramani / Squishy Robots

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Shankar Venkataramani / Squishy Robots

Nature is an expert in math—from flower petals to swimming sea slugs, math is being leveraged for specific traits. Now, mathematicians are looking to nature to help design the future, and even discover new geometries.

Click above to listen to Part 2 of Math’s Paths, featuring Shankar Venkataramani, professor of math at the University of Arizona, discussing how nudibranchs, or sea slugs, became the model for the concept of squishy robots.

Math’s Paths:

Part 1: Eugenia Cheng / Baking Pi

Part 2: Shankar Venkataramani / Squishy Robots

Part 3: Steve Strogatz / Compelling Calculus

Part 4: Daniel Finkel / Love for Math

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Big Picture Science is an immersive radio show and podcast that reveals the unexpected connections in science.

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Senior Astronomer, SETI Institute

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