'Morphing' wheel from South Korea may transform lives - and robots
Voice of America
A Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials researcher controls a wheelchair with stiffness-variable "morphing" wheels in Daejeon, South Korea, Nov. 5, 2024. The "morphing" wheel can roll over obstacles up to 1.3 times the height of its radius. Inspired by the surface tension of water droplets, it goes from solid to fluid when it encounters impediments.
Imagine a wheelchair equipped with wheels flexible enough to navigate all manner of obstacles from curbs to humps and even staircases.
FILE - Tuvalu, shown in this undated photo, is among Pacific atoll islands threatened with rising sea levels, according to a World Bank study released on Nov. 14, 2024. (Rising Nations Initiative via AP)
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Divers from National Geographic Pristine Seas measure the world’s largest coral colony in the Solomon Islands.
Samantha Harvey poses with the trophy and her book "Orbital" after winning the Booker Prize award 2024, in London, Nov. 12, 2024.
Ninawa Inu Pereira Nunes, President of the Federation of the Huni Kuin indigenous people in Brazil's state of Acre, gives an interview during the United Nations climate change conference COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan November 13, 2024.
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Ilham Aliyev, Azerbaijan president, and Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, right, pose for a group photo at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Nov. 12, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan.
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Cassandra Garduno cuts Mexican marigold flowers known as cempasuchil she grew in her floating garden in the Xochimilco borough of Mexico City, Oct. 29, 2024. FILE - Amateur soccer players and families travel in a traditional canoe in the Xochimilco borough of Mexico City, on Oct. 20, 2024.