If we're going to design for the future, one scientist says we should look at the critters around us.

I mean, these animals are doing things that our machines are still not capable of doing.

We're hoping that our robots can actually face the great outdoors.

And to do that, they're going to have to become a lot more animal-like.

It's Monday, November 27th, and it's also Science Friday.

I'm SciFri producer, Rasha Auretti.

To round out our celebration of the 2023 Ig Nobel's,

the awards for science that make you laugh and then think,

we're re-sharing a conversation with two-time winner Dr. David Hu.

He won once for studying how and why wombats make cube-shaped poo, and again for discovering

that almost all mammals empty their bladders in about 21 seconds, give or take a few.

Ira talked with him about his book back in 2018.

Never wondered why your dog's back and forth shaking is so effective in getting you soaked?

How bugs and birds and lizards they can run across the water without falling in?

Or how cockroaches are so darn good at navigating in the dark?

We're all in luck because all of these questions and more are answered in my next guest book,

How to Walk on Water and Climb Up Walls, Animal Movement, and the Robots of the Future.

David, who is the author?

He's a mathematician, professor of mechanical engineering and biology at Georgia Tech

and Atlanta, and we have an excerpt up there at Science Friday.com slash walk on water. Welcome back,

David. Hi, Ira. It's great to be back. Nice to have you back. You just wonder about stuff around you,

don't you, dear? Yeah, the everyday world's a great window into evolutionary history.

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